Given previous biologic evidence of immunomodulatory effects of
coffee, we hypothesized that the association between
coffee intake of
colorectal cancer patients and survival differs by immune responses. Using a molecular pathologic epidemiology database of 4465 incident
colorectal cancer cases, including 1262 cases with molecular data, in the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, we examined the association between
coffee intake of
colorectal cancer patients and survival in strata of levels of histopathologic lymphocytic reaction and T-cell infiltrates in
tumor tissue. We did not observe a significant association of
coffee intake with
colorectal cancer-specific mortality (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio [HR] for 1-cup increase of
coffee intake per day, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.84 to 1.03). Although statistical significance was not reached at the stringent level (α=.005), the association of
coffee intake with
colorectal cancer-specific mortality differed by
Crohn disease-like lymphoid reaction (Pinteraction=.007).
Coffee intake was associated with lower
colorectal cancer-specific mortality in patients with high
Crohn disease-like reaction (multivariable HR for 1-cup increase of
coffee intake per day, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.81; Ptrend=.002) but not in patients with intermediate
Crohn disease-like reaction (the corresponding HR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.72 to 1.44) or negative/low
Crohn disease-like reaction (the corresponding HR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.07). The associations of
coffee intake with
colorectal cancer-specific mortality did not significantly differ by levels of other lymphocytic reaction or any T-cell subset (Pinteraction>.18). There is suggestive evidence for differential prognostic effects of
coffee intake by
Crohn disease-like lymphoid reaction in
colorectal cancer.