Coffee, decaffeinated, cancer

Tavani, A., and C. La Vecchia. 2004. Coffee, decaffeinated coffee, tea and cancer of the colon and rectum A review of epidemiological studies, 1990-2003. Cancer Causes Control 15(8) 743-757. Tavani, A., E. Negri, and C. LaVecchia. 1995. Coffee intake and risk of hip fracture in women in northern Italy. Prev. Med. 24(4) 396-400. 

Unfortunately, the questionnaire did not distinguish between caffeinated versus decaffeinated coffee or instant versus brewed coffee. Positive associations with coffee use are seen for fatal large bowel cancer in both sexes, fatal coronary disease in males only, and possibly for all causes of death in males only. Both sexes were combined for large bowel cancer because the degree of association was essentially equivalent when examined separately for... 

Dichloromethane (or methylene chloride, CH2CI2) is an important solvent, once used to decaffeinate coffee. Coffee is now decaffeinated by using supercritical CO2 due to concerns over the possible ill effects of trace amounts of residual CH2CI2 in the coffee. Subsequent studies on rats have shown, however, that no cancers occurred when animals ingested the equivalent of over 100,000 cups of decaffeinated coffee per day. 

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