Coffee consumption and risk of lung cancer: the ICARE study

Coffee is one of the most widely consumed beverages and a major dietary exposure in the world. In 2007, the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute of Cancer Research (AICR) concluded in its report that for the association between lung cancer with dietary exposures such as coffee intake, the data were either of too low quality, or too inconsistent or the number of studies were too few to allow conclusions to be reached [1]. A meta-analysis (2010) of 13 studies reported significant positive association between coffee consumption and lung cancer risk [2]. However, there may still be residual confounding due to smoking. We sought to examine the association between coffee consumption and lung cancer risk in a large French population-based case–control study, the ICARE study (Investigation of occupational and environmental causes of respiratory cancers). The large sample size of this study allowed us to assess the association by gender, smoking status and histological types of lung cancer. The study design, study population and data collection methods of ICARE study have been described in detail elsewhere [3]. In brief, ICARE study is a large multi-centre