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If you're worried that your addiction to coffee may increase the risk of breast cancer, Health.com has good news.

 

According to Dr. Shumin Zang from Harvard Medical School in Boston, caffeine does not appear to be associated with overall risk of breast cancer. The risk, however, is possible in women who have benign breast disease or less favorable prognoses of breast tumors yet continue to consume four or more cups of coffee daily.

While caffeine does not have a direct link to breast cancer, Dr. Zhang and his team from Tokyo Women’s Medical University found that it raised the risk of tumors by 79 percent. Their research also showed that increased coffee consumption may cause other forms of breast cancer or other tumors to develop, but this has yet to be investigated further.

Still, doctors agree that these findings, while preliminary, should be a source of comfort for now. “It might motivate further studies,” said Dr. Larry Norton of the Breast Cancer Programs at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. “But there is nothing to suggest that someone should not consume caffeine for fear of increasing her risk of developing breast cancer.”