(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Want to reduce your risk of breast cancer? New research suggests drinking coffee might help you do that.

Researchers from Sweden compared certain lifestyle factors and coffee consumption among women with breast cancer and those without breast cancer. They found coffee drinkers had a lower incidence of breast cancer compared to those who rarely drank coffee.

However, other lifestyle factors such as age at menopause, exercise, weight, education and a family history also affected breast cancer rates. Once the researchers adjusted for these other factors, they found the protective effect of coffee was only measurable for antiestrogen-resistant estrogen-receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer.

"There is often conflicting information about the beneficial effects of coffee. When we compared our results to that of a German study, we discovered that their data showed the same trend, but the relationship was much weaker. We suggest that this may have something to do with the way the coffee was prepared, or the type of bean preferred. It is unlikely that the protective effect is due to phytoestrogens present in coffee since there was no reduction in the incidence of ER-positive cancer in this study," the study authors were quoted as saying.

SOURCE: Breast Cancer Research, May 10, 2011