Enjoy a coffee or a tea? If so this may lower your risk of developing the most common form malignant brain tumor, a new study suggests.

The findings, from a study of more than 500,000 European adults, adds to US research that  links coffee and tea consumption to a lowered risk of gliomas, a type of brain tumor that makes up about 80% of malignant brain cancers in adults.

It does not, however, prove that the beverages themselves confer the protection. The researchers pointed out that the data is very preliminary and warns against dramatic increases in the consumption of these beverages stating even if coffee and tea have some direct effect on glioma risk, the impact would be small.

The findings were published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It involved 521,488 men and women between the ages of 25 and 70. The participants completed detailed questionnaires on their medical history, diet, exercise habits, smoking and other lifestyle factors.

For their analysis, the research team focused on more than 410,000 participants who were cancer-free at the outset and had complete dietary information. Over (on average) of 8.5 years of follow-up, 343 of these men and women were diagnosed with glioma; another 245 were diagnosed with another, usually benign type of brain tumor called meningioma.

When the researchers reviewed coffee and tea consumption they initially found no evidence of a "dose-response" relationship -- that is, a decreasing glioma risk as coffee and tea consumption climbed. However, when the researchers looked at two groups: those who averaged at least 3.5 ounces of coffee or tea per day, and those who drank less or none at all the heavier coffee/tea consumers were one-third less likely to be diagnosed with glioma.

The researchers concluded that it is biologically plausible that coffee and/or tea could affect glioma risk. A recent lab study, for example, found that caffeine appeared to slow the growth of a type of glioma called glioblastoma. In addition, both coffee and tea contain antioxidants, which help protect body cells from damage that can lead to cancer and other diseases.

Whilst more research is needed into the area the preliminary findings are certainly interesting and add to the other health benefits associated with moderate caffeine consumption namely a lowered risk of bowel cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease.

Reference: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online September 15^th, 2010.