What component or components in coffee may be reducing the prostate cancer risk?

A new study finds that men who drink a lot of coffee are less likely to develop potentially fatal prostate cancer. It’s the latest study to show a beneficial effect from one of the world’s favorite beverages.
    The study included about 50,000 men who reported their coffee consumption in questionnaires every four years. Over more than two decades, the moderate coffee drinkers were somewhat less likely to develop any form of prostate cancer. But lead author Kathryn Wilson of the Harvard School of Public Health says the real difference showed up when the researchers looked at the most serious prostate cancers.
    Coffee is a chemically complex brew, full of antioxidants and other compounds that may affect the development of prostate cancer.
    Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer among men worldwide, killing about a quarter-million people a year. Wilson says it’ s unclear what component or components in coffee may be reducing the prostate cancer risk—that’ s a target for future research.
    In the meantime, she says it’s too soon to say that men should drink more coffee just to reduce their risk of aggressive prostate cancer. But she says there is a growing body of scientific evidence that coffee confers a variety of real health benefits.