Very hot coffee and tea show threefold esophageal SCC association

A Sept. 8 International Journal of Cancer study of nearly 1 million UK adults linked “very hot” coffee or tea preferences with a 3.17 relative risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.

Evidence grade: Moderate (consistent observational data or small trials). The Sept. 8 journal article matters because 1,045 squamous cell carcinoma cases occurred during long follow-up, compared with 1,303 adenocarcinoma cases, and the heat association appeared specific to squamous cell carcinoma.

The analysis combined the Million Women Study and the UK Biobank, with participants aged 37 to 73. Average follow-up was about 14 years in the Million Women Study and 11 years in the UK Biobank.

Participants reported whether they preferred tea or coffee “warm,” “hot” or “very hot,” and whether they drank fewer than six cups or six or more cups a day. Researchers used National Health Service-linked health records to identify new esophageal cancer cases.

Relative risk compares how often an outcome occurs in one group with another; a relative risk of 3.17 means the rate was just over three times as high in the “very hot” group as in the “warm” group. People who preferred “hot” drinks also had nearly double the squamous cell carcinoma risk compared with warm-drink drinkers, according to the Healthline summary of the paper.

The frequency signal pointed in the same direction. Participants who drank six or more hot beverages a day had a 71% higher squamous cell carcinoma risk than those drinking fewer than six, after accounting for drink temperature, the article said. For adenocarcinoma, the corresponding increase was smaller at 19% and described as less clear.

The researchers adjusted for age, smoking, alcohol use and body measurements using Cox proportional hazards models, a statistical method for comparing event rates over time. Healthline said the association with very hot drinks was seen across smoking status, alcohol intake and whether milk was added.

The practical interpretation is narrower than “coffee is dangerous.” The reported association concerns beverage temperature, not coffee or tea as products, and it applies to UK adults in the two cohorts, not to children, younger adults or populations with different drinking patterns.

Sridhar Papaiah Susheela, a radiation oncologist with ClinicSpots who was not involved in the study, told Healthline: “Unlike the mouth and tongue, which are highly sensitive to heat and will quickly warn you of a burn, the esophagus has fewer pain receptors.” He added: “People often swallow scalding liquids without realizing the tissue damage occurring on the way down.”

The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified beverages above 65 degrees Celsius, or 149 degrees Fahrenheit, as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” according to the Healthline article. Susheela said a three-to-five-minute cooling period could bring drinks below that cut-off.

The study cannot determine whether beverage temperature itself directly increased cancer risk. Participants reported temperature preference rather than measured drinking temperature, and observational studies can be affected by factors researchers do not fully capture. The source material did not report confidence intervals, funding or declared conflicts.

Sylvia Crowder, a nutrition researcher with the Moffitt Cancer Center who was not involved in the research, told Healthline that other esophageal cancer risks still matter. “Established risk factors such as tobacco use, heavy alcohol consumption, obesity, particularly for esophageal adenocarcinoma, and chronic reflux also matter substantially,” she said.

The researchers estimated that about 14% of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cases in the UK were associated with people drinking beverages “very hot” rather than “hot,” equal to about 440 cases a year, according to the Healthline article.

Source: Healthline News article summarising an International Journal of Cancer study, Sept. 11, 2026.

Atlas360 reports health research and does not provide medical advice.