Drinking very hot tea or coffee might be linked to a much higher chance of getting esophageal squamous cell carcinoma according to a big study in the UK with almost 980,000 adults.
Scientists from the University of Oxford looked at health information from people in the Million Women Study and UK Biobank. Over than ten years 2,348 cases of esophageal cancer were found.
The study showed that people who liked drinks had almost double the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma compared with people who liked warm drinks. For people who liked hot drinks the risk was more than three times higher.
How someone drank also seemed important. People who had six or more drinks a day had a 71% higher risk than people who had fewer than six after researchers considered the temperature of the drinks.
The results support research that led the International Agency for Research on Cancer to say that very hot drinks, above 65°C are probably harmful to humans.
Scientists think the possible connection might be from repeated heat damage and inflammation in the cells lining the esophagus. However specialists warned that the study does not prove that hot drinks directly cause cancer.
People told researchers about the temperature they preferred not the temperature they drank. How people feel the heat can also be different.
Experts therefore recommend letting tea and coffee cool before drinking. Smoking on the hand is still a major cause of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
The researchers said that, with the higher risk linked to very hot drinks the overall chance of getting esophageal cancer is still fairly low.
