Afraid of developing liver cancer? Drink coffee!

That’s the conclusion of researchers from the British universities of Southampton and Edinburgh who analyzed data from 26 studies involving more than 2.25 million participants.

According to their research published in the journal BMJ Open, moderate coffee consumption helps lower the risk of developing liver cancer.

Compared to non-coffee drinkers, drinking one cup per day may lower the risk by 20 percent, and drinking two cups by 35 percent. If people have five cups of coffee per day, it may halve the risk of developing liver cancer, according to the researchers.

They found that even decaffeinated coffee can have the same effect, though to a lesser and less predictable degree.

 Moderate coffee consumption helps lower the risk of developing liver cancer. /VCG Photo

There have long been claims of coffee’s benefits for human health, though there is no definitive scientific conclusion on how much it is advisable to drink.

The Southampton and Edinburgh team emphasized that there was no evidence that drinking more than five cups per day would lower the liver cancer risk.