14 DAY TRIAL // Lung cancer has remained to this day one of the most dangerous and lethal conditions in the world, killing millions of people each year. Cures against it include chemotherapy and radiotherapy, but these methods are only marginally effective in killing mutated cells. The best defense, healthcare experts have always said, is prevention. One of the biggest risk factors for the condition is smoking, and a new research shows a possible way for smokers to avoid developing cancer until they finally quit the habit.
Researchers at the Chung Shan Medical University, in Taiwan, presented a new report at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer, in which they showed that green tea might have a modulating effect on lung cancer in smoking patients. “Lung cancer is the leading cause of all cancer deaths in Taiwan. Tea, particularly green tea, has received a great deal of attention because tea polyphenols are strong antioxidants, and tea preparations have shown inhibitory activity against tumorigenesis,” CSMU student I-Hsin Lin, MS, said, quoted by ScienceDaily.
This line of research is very difficult to conduct, analysts say, because there exist inherent biases in the way all studies in this regard are set up. In the past, there were several investigations aimed at figuring out how consuming tea influenced cancer, but most of these papers are still overshadowed by the suspicion of inaccuracy. The new study featured 510 participants, of which 170 had lung cancer, and 340 were healthy control subjects. The research team that Lin conducted compensated for other risk factors, by asking each participant about things such as demographic characteristics, smoking habits, green-tea consumption, the amount of fruit and vegetables they ate, and history of cancer in their families.
The final results showed that smokers who did not drink green tea regularly exhibited a 5,16-fold increase in lung-cancer risk, as compared with non-smokers who consumed such tea. When dealing specifically with smokers, those who did not drink tea had a 12.71-fold increased risk of cancer, as opposed to smokers who drank at least one cup per day. “Our study may represent a clue that in the case of lung cancer, smoking-induced carcinogenesis could be modulated by green tea consumption and the growth factor environment,” Lin concluded.