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Jasmine tea consumption and upper gastrointestinal cancer in China

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Abstract

Introduction

Epidemiological data on green/jasmine tea and esophageal as well as gastric cancer are limited and inconclusive.

Methods

In order to study the effect of jasmine tea in upper gastrointestinal (UGI) cancers, we evaluated 600 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), 598 gastric cardia cancer (GCA), and 316 gastric non-cardia cancer (GNCA) cases and 1,514 age-, gender-, and neighborhood-matched controls. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated from logistic regression adjusted for matching factors and potential confounders.

Results

Among controls, 35% of males and 8% of females reported consumption of jasmine tea; other tea consumption was rare. Consumption of jasmine tea (ever vs. never) was not associated with risk of ESCC (OR = 1.15, 95% CI 0.92–1.44), GCA (OR = 1.14, 95% CI 0.88–1.37), or GNCA (OR = 0.85, 95% CI 0.64–1.15) in males and females combined. Among males, cumulative lifetime consumption showed a significant positive dose–response relation with ESCC risk, but not for GCA and GNCA. In exploratory analyses, occupation affected the relation between tea and ESCC such that consumption in males was associated with increased risk only in non-office workers.

Conclusion

Overall, we found no evidence for a protective effect of tea in esophageal or gastric cancer. Further studies of the potential effects of thermal damage, tea quality, and water quality on UGI cancers are suggested.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Intramural Research Program of National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics. The funding unit had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Authors thank all the subjects who participated in the study and all the collaborators who contributed to its success. We also want to express our appreciation to Dr. Sholom Wacholder from Biostatistics Branch, DCEG, NCI, for his consultant for our statistical analyses.

Competing interests

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA

    Ying Gao, Nan Hu, Alisa M. Goldstein & Philip R. Taylor

  2. Shanxi Cancer Hospital, Taiyuan, Shanxi, People’s Republic of China

    XiaoYou Han & Ti Ding

  3. Information Management Services, Inc., Silver Spring, MD, USA

    Carol Giffen

  4. Genetic Epidemiology Branch, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, NIH/NCI, 6120 Executive Blvd, EPS 7016, Rockville, MD, 20852, USA

    Ying Gao

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  1. Ying Gao
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Correspondence to Ying Gao.

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Gao, Y., Hu, N., Han, X. et al. Jasmine tea consumption and upper gastrointestinal cancer in China. Cancer Causes Control 20, 1997–2007 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9394-z

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