Based on a study conducted by Swedish researchers, women who drink enough amounts of coffee everyday have lower risks of developing aggressive breast cancer.

Their study successfully linked drinking at least five cups of coffee a day to a significantly lowered reduction in ER-negative breast cancer or more commonly known as t he non-hormone responsive disease. However, they found no links between coffee consumption and ER-positive breast cancer.

Dr. Per Hal, co-author in the said study, said that daily intake of coffee may protect women against the aggressive form of breast cancer – ER-negative. Hal, however, admits that they do not have thorough details about this finding yet. For example, they do not know if there are specific coffee mixes that can affect women’s risk to breast cancer. What they do know though, is that the protective effect of coffee in general is striking.

The study was reported online in the Breast Cancer Research website on May 11. It involved 5,929 Swedish women between 50 to 74 years old. Roughly half of that population have breast cancer.

Questionnaires were handed out to the participants which include questions like smoking, eating, and drinking pattern. Based on those questionnaires alone, the researchers noticed that women who drink a minimum of five cups of coffee per day have at least 33 percent lesser chance of having ER-negative breast cancer.

Hal, however, pointed out that consumers should not jump in to conclusion just yet. Although they saw an association between coffee and breast cancer, they have not yet proven that the two have a cause-and-effect relationship.

Their next step is to single out what specific chemical in the coffee that cause such dramatic decrease in ER-negative breast cancer risk.