Women who regularly consume tea and citrus fruits, including juices, may have a reduced risk of developing ovarian cancer, a new study suggests.

Around 315 women in Ireland are newly diagnosed with cancer of the ovaries every year. The disease is often referred to as a ‘silent killer' because its symptoms can often be confused with other illnesses, such as gastrointestinal disorders. As a result, most patients are not diagnosed until they are in the advanced stages of the disease.

Scientists in the UK and US studied the diets of almost 172,000 women, aged between 25 and 55, for over 30 years.

They found that women who regularly consumed food and drinks high in flavanones, which are found in citrus fruits and juices, and flavonols, which are found in tea, apples, grapes and red wine, had a reduced risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer, the most common type of the disease.

Flavonols and Flavanones are types of dietary flavonoids. Flavonoids are essential pigments for producing colours in plants, however they are also thought to provide health benefits to people.

According to Prof Aedin Cassidy of the University of East Anglia, this marks the first large-scale study that investigated whether the habitual intake of different flavonoids could reduce the risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer.

"We found that women who consume foods high in two sub-groups of powerful substances called flavonoids - flavonols and flavanones - had a significantly lower risk of developing epithelial ovarian cancer.

"The main sources of these compounds include tea and citrus fruits and juices, which are readily incorporated into the diet, suggesting that simple changes in food intake could have an impact on reducing ovarian cancer risk," Prof Cassidy said.

She added that ‘just a couple of cups of black tea every day' was linked with a 31% reduced risk of developing the disease.

Details of these findings are published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.