With more than 75,000 new cases of kidney and renal pelvis cancer anticipated this year, it can be reassuring to know that diverse kinds of treatment exist, such as immunotherapy and targeted therapy.

Although great strides have been made in this field, treatment resistance is still a concern. Unfortunately, "acquired resistance" to first-line therapy is quite prevalent in patients, so more treatment options are still needed.

In a study recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers from Kanazawa University in Japan tested whether two compounds found in coffee beans, called kahweol acetate and cafestol, could be used to treat renal cancer, after obtaining encouraging results regarding their usefulness against prostate cancer. The research group found that the two compounds together synergistically reduced cancer cell proliferation and migration. They also demonstrated that these two compounds reduced the expression of cell proteins linked to the transition from one cancer cell type to another, signaling between immune cells and cancer cells, and the prevention of programmed cell death (a process in which cells destroy themselves before they become cancerous).

These findings demonstrate that these two compounds, present in your morning coffee, have strong potential in the fight against renal cancer.