Coffee and tea consumption, patient-reported, and clinical outcomes in a longitudinal study of patients with breast cancer

Abstract

Background: Higher consumption of coffee and tea has been associated with improved health outcomes in the general population and improved breast cancer (BC) prognosis. This study investigated patterns of coffee and tea consumption and association with patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and clinical outcomes among survivors of BC.

Methods: The authors included survivors of stage I-III BC enrolled in the CANTO cohort (NCT01993498) that provided post-treatment assessment of coffee and tea consumption from years 1 to 4 after diagnosis. Group-based trajectory modeling clustered patients according to daily consumption of coffee and tea. Multivariable mixed models and Cox models examined associations between consumption, PROs and clinical outcomes.

Results: Among 3788 patients, the authors identified four stable patterns of consumption: "Low" (25.8%), "Moderate" (37.6%), "High" (25.3%), and "Very high" (11.3%), corresponding to <1, 2, 3, and ≥ 4 cups of coffee and/or tea per day. Patients in the "Very high" group (vs. "Low"), were more likely to be younger, smokers, with higher monthly income and education. PROs and survival outcomes were similar across the four groups.

Conclusions: Over one in three survivors of BC reported high or very high consumption of coffee and/or tea. The authors found no association between higher consumption of coffee and/or tea, worse PROs and clinical outcomes.

Keywords: breast cancer; coffee; patient-reported outcome measures; survivors; tea.

FIGURE 1

Evolution of mean model‐based C30 Summary Score, Fatigue, Pain and Insomnia scores (EORTC QLQ‐C30) over time (A–D, respectively). In functional scales, higher scores indicate a better condition. For symptom scales, higher scores are indicative of a worse symptomatology. (E and F) Evolution of mean model‐based Hospital Anxiety and Depression scores (HADS) over time. For HADS scale, higher scores indicate a worse symptomatology, scoring: noncase (score, 0–7), doubtful case (8–10), and case (11–21). All values are model‐based multivariable‐adjusted average scores obtained from mixed models including time, trajectory group for coffee and tea consumption, time × group interaction, and covariates available at baseline.