AACR LogoIn our previous article we had mentioned as to how adding ascorbic acid and sugar to green tea could enhance health. Drinking green tea seems to be quite advantageous to health. Numerous studies have illustrated the medical benefits of consuming green tea in the past. Now a new study from Taiwan claims that drinking green tea may revise the consequence of smoking on lung cancer.

Preceding studies of green tea appear to have been withdrawn by the defects of the epidemiologic model with its innate prejudices.

“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,” commented I-Hsin Lin, M.S., a student at Chung Shan Medical University in Taiwan.

Lin and colleagues enlisted around 170 patients suffering from lung cancer and about 340 fit patients as controls. The study authors supplied surveys to attain demographic characteristics, cigarette smoking habits, green tea consumption, nutritional intake of fruits and vegetables, cooking practices and family past record of lung cancer. Apparently, they also conducted genotyping on insulin-like development issues as polymorphisms on the subsequent insulin-like growth factors namely IGF1, IGF2 and IGFBP3, which have all been apparently accounted to be linked to cancer risk.

Amid smokers and non-smokers, those who did not consume green tea appeared to have a 5.16-fold augmented risk of lung cancer as opposed to those who consumed at least one cup of green tea each day. Among smokers, apparently those who did not drink green tea at all seemed to have a 12.71-fold raised threat of lung cancer as against those who took at least one cup of green tea every day.

Lin commented, “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 and colleagues believe that genetics could play a function in this risk discrepancy. Green tea consumers with non-susceptible IGF1 (CA)19/(CA)19 and (CA)19/X genotypes supposedly accounted for a 66 percent drop in lung cancer threat as opposed to green tea drinkers with the IGF1 X/X genotype.

Heavy smokers bearing the vulnerable IGF1, IGF2 and IGFBP3 genotypes also appeared to have an elevated threat of lung cancer as opposed to nonsmokers having non-susceptible IGF1, IGF2 and IGFBP3 genotypes.

The study was presented at the AACR-IASLC Joint Conference on Molecular Origins of Lung Cancer.