Very hot drinks may triple oesophageal cancer risk: Study

The largest study of its kind to date has found a link between drinking very hot beverages and an increased risk of oesophageal cancer.

According to the study, conducted by researchers at the University of Oxford and published in the International Journal of Cancer, people who regularly drank very hot tea or coffee, at temperatures of 65°C or above, were around three times more likely to develop oesophageal cancer than those who preferred their drinks warm.

The study, which followed around one million middle-aged men and women in the UK for 14 years, found that drinking six or more hot beverages a day was associated with an increased risk.

Keren Papier, a senior nutritional epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health and lead researcher of the study, said the large sample size adds to existing evidence that drinking very hot beverages could increase the risk of oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

She added that it was better to let tea or coffee cool down a little before drinking it rather than consuming it while very hot.

The study noted that lifestyle-related risk factors, particularly smoking and alcohol consumption, followed by obesity, remain more important. Therefore, alongside avoiding very hot beverages, it recommended not smoking and cutting down on alcohol as much as possible.

WAM