LONDON Coffee drinking may protect smokers against bladder cancer, scientists say.

Researchers in Spain found that smokers who drank fewer than two cups of coffee a week, almost doubled their chances of developing the disease. The findings were reported in the journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Smokers who drank coffee were three times as likely to contract bladder cancer as nonsmoking coffee drinkers. But smokers who did not drink coffee were seven times more at risk than nonsmokers.

Smoking is well recognized as the most important risk factor for bladder cancer. The new study showed that the link between smoking and bladder cancer may be even greater than was previously thought.

Coffee was thought to moderate the harmful effects of cancer- causing agents in tobacco.

The researchers, led by Dr. G.Lopez-Abente, from the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid, analyzed data from 500 new and already diagnosed cases of bladder cancer over a 12-month period from a dozen general hospitals across Spain.

All patients, and a comparison group of more than 1,000 people, supplied details of employment history, tobacco use, diet and coffee consumption.

(DPA)