Drinking tea impacts cancer risk

For Asian women, rates of endometrial cancer increase when they move to the United States, suggesting that behaviors in their home country offer some protection against this disease. In particular, Asian diets include foods like tea and soy that are high in polyphenols — plant chemicals that inhibit the activity of aromatase, the enzyme encoded by the CYP19A1 gene. Variants in the gene have been linked to endometrial cancer.

Xiao Ou Shu, M.D., Ph.D., and colleagues examined the interaction of these dietary factors with genetic variations, or polymorphisms, in CYP19A1. They report in the American Journal of Epidemiology that women who consumed less soy and tea had a lower risk of endometrial cancer.

However, only tea consumption modified endometrial cancer risk linked to three CYP19A1 polymorphisms. The findings suggest that tea polyphenols may modify the effect of polymorphisms in the CYP19A1 gene on the development of endometrial cancer and highlight the importance of gene-environment interactions on disease risk.

– by Leigh MacMillan