Tea 'could cut skin cancer risk'

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Thursday, 19

April 2007,

Drinking just two cups of tea per day could cut the

risk of developing skin cancer, a study suggests.

The US research compared the tea-drinking

habits of 1,400 people with skin cancer and 700 who had not developed the

disease. The study, in the European

Journal of Cancer Prevention, suggests chemicals in tea could have a protective

effect. But British cancer experts

warned that the best way to guard against the disease was to protect the skin.

The study, by a team at Dartmouth Medical School, New Hampshire, looked at 70 adults with basal cell

carcinoma and 696 with squamous cell carcinoma. Both

are cancers which develop in skin cells. Sunlight is a

contributing factor in around 90% of cases. Around 70,000 people in Britain are affected by the cancers each year. All those studied were diagnosed between 1993 and 1995 or

1997 and 2000.

The study asked the people with cancer, plus the

healthy group - all aged between 25 and 74 - about diet, lifestyle and their

consumption of both green and black teas. Both kinds of tea are rich in

antioxidants which animal studies have been shown prevent the development of

cancer cells. This research found that people who

drank tea regularly had a lower risk of either cancer. Those

who drank two or more cups a day had a 65% lower risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma. Tea-drinking also appeared to

protect against basal cell carcinoma, but to a lesser degree.

Adding lemon peel to the tea, a practice more common in the US than the UK, seemed to increase the benefits of the

drink, the researchers said.

Writing in the journal, the team led by Dr Judy Rees,

said: " The constituents of tea have been investigated for their activity

against a variety of diseases and cancers. " But

the most potent appear to be polyphenols

[antioxidants]. " The team said

further research into the protective effects of tea could lead to a better

understanding of how cancer develops. But Dr Alison

Ross, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: " Although these results

sound interesting they do not provide firm evidence that drinking tea offers

protection against non-melanoma skin cancer. " Our

advice is to spend some time in the shade between 11am and 3pm, to make sure you never burn, to cover

up with a hat, t-shirt and sunglasses, to take extra

care with children and to use a factor 15+ sunscreen. "

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