Objectives:

Controversial results were reported among several epidemiologic studies on the relationship between coffee consumption and urologic cancer risk. We, therefore, conducted this meta-analysis to clarify these associations.

Methods:

Electronic databases including Pubmed, Embase and Cochrane library were searched between January 1966 and August 2013 for eligible studies. Pooled relative risk (RR) and its 95 % confidence interval (CI) were calculated. All P values are two tailed.

Results:

Thirteen cohorts were eligible for inclusion. As to prostate cancer (PCa), significant reverse association was found among highest versus none/lowest analysis with acceptable heterogeneity (RR 0.86, 95 % CI 0.79-0.95; I 2 25 %, P value for heterogeneity: 0.221). A pooled RR which assessed advanced PCa was 0.73 (with 95 % CI 0.50-1.07), and a slight stronger reverse association was found in fatal PCa. However, a slight insignificant reverse association, basing on 8 studies with 9 outcomes, was found in dose-response analysis (RR 0.98, 95 % CI 0.93-1.03). For kidney and bladder cancer, insignificant associations were found in both highest versus none/lowest analyses and dose-response analyses.

Conclusions:

Our findings suggest that coffee consumption may reduce the risk of PCa. No associations were found with both bladder and kidney cancer. Further well-designed large-scaled cohort studies are warranted to provide more definitive conclusions.