Francesca Bravi, ScD, from the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri in Milan, Italy, led a team of investigators who evaluated published studies on the risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) which included quantitative information on coffee consumption. They concluded that overall relative risk for coffee drinkers vs nondrinkers was 0.59 (95% CI, 0.49 - 0.72) and the overall relative risk for an increase in 1 cup of coffee per day was 0.77 (95% CI, 0.72 - 0.82). In plain English that means that the average risk for HCC for coffee drinkers is almost half (59%) that of the nondrinkers.
An inverse relation between coffee consumption and HCC persisted even after controlling for major risk factors for HCC including history or serological evidence of hepatitis B and C, cirrhosis and other liver diseases, social class indicators, alcohol drinking and tobacco smoking.
This is not the first study of this type, as coffee has been shown to reduce the risk for liver disease including cirrhosis and liver cancer in the past. Additionally there is also considerable evidence that coffee reduces type 2 diabetes risk, protects against late-onset blepharospasm, reduces the risk of gout in men. There have been some concerns that coffee might increase coronary disease risk including myocardial infarction, but they have been dismissed by subsequent clinical studies. All things considered, coffee should now taste better then ever, but beware if you add a cigarette to it you do increase your risk of coronary disease, and coffee has been shown to increase the risk for high blood pressure.
Source: Coffee Appears to Lessen Liver Cancer Risk (Medscape) [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/561366