London: Drinking coffee may be associated with a lower risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) -- the most common type of liver cancer, a study claims. Researchers from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland noted that coffee is one of the most commonly consumed beverages worldwide. Previous research has shown there are many health benefits of drinking coffee, which may be due to its high levels of antioxidants, they said.

The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, took place in the UK over 7.5 years and looked at the coffee-drinking habits of 471,779 participants in the UK Biobank, one of the largest studies of middle-aged individuals in the world. The findings suggested a reduced risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common form of liver cancer, in coffee drinkers compared to those who did not drink coffee. "This is one of the first studies to investigate the risk of digestive cancers according to different types of coffee and we found that the risk of HCC was just as low in people who drank mostly instant coffee, the type most commonly drank in the UK."

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