Green Tea Reduces Lung Cancer Risk

As reported by World Tea News March 7 2012

Pathologists examining a large sample of lung cancer patients in four separate studies in Taiwan, the Czech Republic and the United States report significant protection from drinking tea.

In one Taiwan study cancer cells in patients consuming at least one cup of green tea daily failed to form layers characteristic of abnormal cells. A second, four-year study compared 170 cancer patients with 340 healthy controls to better understand and isolate the impact of smoking habits, genetic factors and green tea consumption.

The study, published in the medical journal Hematology Oncology concluded that tea significantly decreases a person’s risk for lung cancer.

In a separate report Kaiser Permanente researchers tracked 126,293 people who provided baseline data from 1978 to 1985 and followed them until 2008 to determine their risk for developing lung cancer in relation to cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, gender, ethnicity, BMI, and level of education.

They found individuals who consume high amounts of black tea and fruit, as well as those with higher BMIs, have a lower risk of developing lung cancer, while those who consume more than three alcoholic drinks per day have an increased risk of developing the disease, according to three separate studies presented at CHEST 2011, the 77th annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP).

The Czech study found that consumption of black tea had a protective effect on nonsmoking women, while fruit had a protective effect for both men and women.

In the green tea study patients with lung cancer exhibited a higher proportion of smoking, green tea consumption of less than one cup per day, exposure to cooking fumes and family history of lung cancer than controls, according to the study results. An elevated risk was observed in smokers who never drank green tea, as compared with smokers who drank more than one cup of green tea per day.

Doctors the Changhwa Christian Hospital in Taiwan catalogued five different variations of lung cancer. Tea was offered in quantities from 30 to 50 ml to total 100 to 120 ml per day.

“Our study suggests a protective effect of green tea on lung cancer elicited by cigarette smoking,” the researchers said. “Green tea drinkers have a reduced risk of lung cancer. Heavy smokers have a higher risk of lung cancer. This result may indicate that smoking-induced pulmonary carcinogenesis may be modulated by green tea consumption and the growth factor environment.”

Finally, a second Taiwanese study in 2010 examined the smoking and tea drinking habits of more than 500 people, and found that the risk of lung cancer was 5 times higher in those who did not drink green tea. Among smokers, the risk was 12 times higher.

A new study shows for the first time how EGCG in green tea might work to suppress lung cancer by raising levels of a molecule called mi-R210 inside lung cancer cells. Cells with higher levels of mi-R210 multiplied more slowly than lung cancer cells with lower levels, the study showed. In addition, cells with high mi-R210 levels lost the ability to grow on top of each other, a hallmark of cancer cells.

The study was published in the September issue of the journal Carcinogenesis.