Genetics may make people susceptible to certain lung diseases such as lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and reduced lung function. If so, then a family history of these disorders should place individuals in the high-risk category. Because cigarette smoking is such an overwhelming risk factor and preventable, the importance of family history and genetic susceptibility to lung disease and lung cancer risk has been overlooked. Lung power normally declines as a person ages but being angry and hostile can speed up the process. Later on this page I discuss lung cancer prevention and treatment from a nutritional perspective. 
   A smog-filled sky can make it hard to breathe, but air pollution in the home may also be hard on people with lung disease. Those who live in homes with poor air quality endure worse symptoms. Cigarette smoke is the major indoor air-polluting culprit.

High Quality products formulated by a medical doctor
Consider highly popular all natural products. These top quality products include Mind Power Rx for better mental focus, concentration, and mood; Diet Rx which helps you eat less. It really does curb appetite; Good Night Rx for better sleep; Eyesight Rx for better vision, often within days; MultiVit Rx a daily comprehensive multivitamin for more energy and vitality; Joint Power Rx for healthy joints; Prostate Power Rx for a healthy prostate gland; and Passion Rx for sexual enhancement, better libido, and improved performance and stamina in men and women.

Diet and Lung disease
Eating plenty of fruit, vegetables and fish keep lungs healthy. Those who follow a diet closest to this " Mediterranean " ideal are less likely as their peers with eating habits furthest from this pattern to develop chronic lung disease.

Major lung diseases include:
Asthma is a chronic lung disease
COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is a chronic lung disease. Women who smoke are at greater risk than male smokers of developing lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Chronic bronchitis
Emphysema is a chronic lung disease
Interstitial lung disease - also called interstitial pulmonary fibrosis or pulmonary fibrosis. Interstitial lung disease, or ILD, includes more than 180 chronic lung disease types. Interstitial lung diseases are named for the tissue between the air sacs of the lungs called the interstitium -- the tissue affected by fibrosis (scarring).  The common link between the many forms of Interstitial lung disease is that they all begin with an inflammation. More than 80 percent of interstitial lung disease cases are diagnosed as pneumoconiosis, a drug-induced disease, or hypersensitivity pneumonitis.
Pulmonary fibrosis - Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is a chronic lung disease with a poor prognosis.
Sarcoidosis - Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory condition with lung disease involvement characterized by granulomas (small rounded outgrowths made up of blood vessels, cells and connective tissues) that can produce many different symptoms. Sarcoidosis is a chronic disease lasting for several years or a lifetime. Some people, however, may have a type that only lasts a few months.

Additional Lung Diseases:

Bronchiolitis obliterans
Bronchiolitis obliterans is a chronic lung disease where the bronchioles are plugged with granulation tissue.

Histiocytosis X
Pulmonary histiocytosis X (PHX) is an uncommon interstitial lung disease related to tobacco smoking. It primarily affects young adults.

Black lung disease
Black lung disease is an occupational lung disease caused by prolonged inhalation of coal mine dust. Black lung disease is also called silicosis, coal workers' pneumoconiosis, or black lung.

Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia
This is a group of diseases of known or unknown etiology characterized by eosinophilic pulmonary infiltrates and, commonly, peripheral blood eosinophilia. Eosinophilic pneumonia is sometimes called the pulmonary infiltrates with eosinophilia (PIE) syndrome.

Restrictive lung disease
Restrictive lung disease is not the name of a particular lung disease, rather a term used to denote a chronic lung disorder that causes a decrease in the ability to expand the lung and sometimes makes it harder to get enough oxygen to meet the body's needs. The most common restrictive lung diseases are Interstitial pulmonary fibrosis / interstitial lung disease (including sSarcoidosis - granulomatous disorder) and extrapulmonary restrictive lung disease (including scoliosis)>

Lung disease symptom
The most common symptoms of lung disease include cough, shortness of breath, and wheezing.

Definition of common terms involved with lung disease
* bronchiolitis - inflammation that involves the bronchioles (small airways)
* alveolitis - inflammation that involves the alveoli (air sacs)
* vasculitis - inflammation that involves the small blood vessels (capillaries)

Flying on an airplane with lung disease
People with emphysema and other serious lung diseases can safely travel by airplane. However, they should have approval by their doctor. In a 2007 study of 500 lung disease patients surveyed after a planned a flight, British researchers found that 18 percent suffered some type of respiratory symptom on the plane -- most commonly shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain. However, the symptoms were moderate, and there were no serious incidents requiring an emergency landing. All of the study participants were evaluated by a lung specialist before their flight, and 11 percent of all patients ended up canceling their plans. This was often because their doctor advised against it. In other cases, the need to travel with supplemental oxygen was the obstacle; some patients did not want to do it, while others could not because the airline prohibited it.

Lung Cancer Treatment or Prevention with Supplements
There are several steps you can take to reduce your chance of developing lung cancer or increasing your odds at improving survival after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Here are some suggestions:

Once people have been diagnosed with lung cancer they might think it pointless to stop smoking, but in fact it's not too late to benefit from quitting. Those who quit smoking after the lung cancer diagnosis became less severely impaired by the lung disease than those who kept up the habit.

Plenty of sunshine and vitamin D may help people with early stage lung cancer survive longer after surgery. Patients who had high levels of vitamin D and had lung cancer surgery in sunny months were more than twice as likely to be alive five years after surgery compared to patients with low levels of vitamin D who had surgery in the winter. Exposure to sunshine is a significant source of vitamin D, which also comes from food and dietary supplements.

Eating cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli and sprouts, protects against the development of lung cancer. A person's genetic makeup may influence these anti-cancer benefits.

You must stop smoking, inhaling cigarette smoke, or taking nicotine in any form including nicotine chewing gum. Nicotine can prevent chemotherapy drugs such as Taxol from killing lung cancer cells. This may help explain why lung cancer is so difficult to treat in smokers. Even people who quit smoking but use nicotine supplements, such as patches or gum, may not be helped as much as they should be by cancer therapy.

Supplements for Lung Cancer
Although little human research is available regarding the use of natural supplements and herbs for the prevention and treatment of lung cancer, the following show promise. It is possible that the benefits of these supplements or herbs could be additive if combined, but combinations should be done in low dosages to avoid overstimulation.

Curcumin - a dose of 500 mg a day of a combination curcumin and turmeric.

Carotenoids and Flavonoids - Eating more fresh, organic fruits and vegetables or drinking vegetable juices is a good option.Quercetin is a flavonoid found in many fruits and vegetables that has anti lung tumor activity.

Green Tea - Green tea has been shown to be a potent chemopreventive agent against lung cancer formation in animal studies. The reported mechanisms for activity of green tea against cancer are antioxidation, induction of phase II enzymes, inhibition of TNFalpha expression and release, inhibition of cell proliferation, and induction of apoptosis. Cell cycle arrest and apoptosis induced by green tea are probably the two most significant factors. Consider drinking a cup of green tea in the morning and at lunch.

Arjuna is an Ayurvedic herb

Inositol supplements have been studied for lung cancer

Astragalus has been tested in combination with platinum for treatment of lung cancer. The results are encouraging.

Multivitamins taken as a daily supplement could be helpful

Resveratrol is found in red wine, consider drinking a 2 or 3 ounces in the evening with dinner.

Phytoestrogens

Vitamin D could be helpful - take a 20 to 30 minute walk a day and get some sun exposure.

Lung Cancer and Vitamins
Antioxidants and other vitamin supplements seem to offer no protection against lung cancer. In an analysis of eight previous studies, researchers found no evidence that vitamins A, C, E or folate lower a person's risk of lung cancer. Across the studies, which followed thousands of adults for up to 16 years, people with the highest intakes of the vitamins were no less likely to develop lung cancer than those with the lowest intakes. Vitamins C and E are antioxidants, which means they help neutralize cell-damaging substances in the body called free radicals. Vitamin A and folate, a B vitamin, also help maintain normal, healthy cells. There is some evidence that vitamin C from food, but not supplements, is protective. It may just be that the overall flavonoids and carotenoids together could reduce the risk of lung cancer as opposed to megadoses of certain isolated vitamins and supplements. International Journal of Cancer, February 15, 2006.

Lung Cancer Diagnosis
In people at high risk for lung cancer, low-dose CT scanning of the chest may detect early lung cancer. However, "its usefulness as a screening tool is limited because it misses tumors in certain areas of the lung and often falsely identifies harmless spots as being cancerous.
     Many positive CT scans for lung cancer screening resolve after short-term follow-up. The value of CT screening for lung cancer is unclear. In people at high risk for the disease, CT scanning may detect early lung cancer, but it's usefulness as a screening tool is limited because it misses tumors in certain areas of the lung and often falsely identifies harmless spots as being cancerous. Positive CT screening for lung cancer usually results in the diagnosis of early stage I lung cancer, but benign lesions are also found.

Lung Cancer Cause
There are several factors that increase the risk for lung cancer.  Cigarette smoking is the single most important factor. Additional risk factors for lung cancer include industrial hazards such as radiation, asbestos, nickel, chromate, beryllium, arsenic, and coal. Air pollution is a cause in those living in urban congested areas with a lot of traffic. Radon exposure from soil in the house is another cause of lung cancer.
     Workers exposed to the pesticide chlorpyrifos have an elevated risk of lung cancer and lung disease. Annual screening for lung cancer using computed tomography (CT) can help detect the disease at its earliest, most curable stage, but it does not reduce mortality from the disease and could actually result in more harm than good.

Radon and Lung Cancer
A study conducted in an area of Italy where residential radon levels are high confirms that the risk of lung cancer increases in step with levels of radon exposure, but that the Mediterranean diet may modify the effects. In the study, researchers examined the association between indoor radon exposure and lung cancer in 384 "case" patients with lung cancer and 404 control patients without lung cancer. They considered the potential role of smoking, diet, and other risk factors. The researchers determined residential history during the 30-year period ending 5 years prior to enrollment. Radon detectors were placed in the main bedroom and the living room in each residence for two consecutive 6-month periods. Confirming prior studies, the researchers found a positive link between indoor radon and lung cancer. The odds of developing lung cancer rose with increasing levels of residential radon exposure. Overall, the increase was generally not statistically significant, although significance was reached for some high radon exposure categories. They also report that individuals with low-medium consumption of dietary oxidants tended to be at greater risk for developing lung cancer. The possibility that dietary antioxidants may modify the effects of radon on lung cancer risk should be studied further, they conclude. SOURCE: International Journal of Cancer, May 10, 2005.

Marijuana and Lung Cancer
Although both marijuana and tobacco smoke are packed with cancer-causing chemicals, other qualities of marijuana seem to keep it from promoting lung cancer. The difference rests in the often opposing actions of the nicotine in tobacco and the active ingredient, THC, in marijuana, says Dr. Robert Melamede of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs. Whereas nicotine has several effects that promote lung and other types of cancer, THC acts in ways that counter the cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke. Lab research indicates that nicotine activates a body enzyme that converts certain chemicals in both tobacco and marijuana smoke into cancer-promoting form. In contrast, studies in mice suggest that THC blocks this enzyme activity.

Lung Cancer and Pesticides
Daily on-the-job exposure to the pesticide diazinon appears to increase the risk of lung cancer and possibly other cancers, according to findings from the US government-sponsored Agricultural Health Study, a project begun in 1993 to investigate the health effects of pesticides on farm families in Iowa and North Carolina.

Screening for Lung Cancer:
Screening for asymptomatic lung cancer by annual chest x-ray and sputum cytology in patients at high risk does not result in decreased mortality and cannot be recommended for the general population.

Lung Cancer in a Woman
Women who develop lung cancer appear to have lower survival rates if they have a history of using hormone replacement therapy.

Classification of Lung Cancer
There are several types of lung cancer, each with its own rate or progression and its own treatment protocol. Here is a commonly accepted lung cancer classification:

1. Adenocarcinoma (a NSCLC) is the most common type of lung cancer, making up 30-40% of all cases. The incidence of adenocarcinoma has increased recently. Adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer in women and in non smokers. Adenocarcinoma grows slower than squamous cell carcinoma. Adenocarcinoma is cancer of the glandular tissue, or cancer in which the tumor cells form recognizable glandular patterns. Adenocarcinoma is a lung cancer that begins in the cells that line the alveoli and make substances such as mucus. Adenocarcinoma is considered a non-small cell lung cancer. Two common signs of non-small cell lung cancer are a cough that doesn't go away, and shortness of breath.
     For patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (stage IIIb and IV), meta-analyses have yielded a small survival benefit in favor of patients receiving chemotherapy vs. best supportive care.

2. Squamous cell carcinoma accounts for 25 - 40% of lung cancer. Squamous cell carcinoma is the most common type in smokers. Aquamous cell carcinoma is a cancer of the layered, squamous epithelium (surface cells) of the lungs or bronchi.

3. Small cell carcinoma occurs about 20 - 25% of cases of lung cancer. Small cell carcinoma is a highly malignant neuroendocrine tumor, strongly related to cigarette smoking. Small cell carcinoma has a rapid rate of growth and can spread quickly. In many cases it is difficult to operate on small cell lung cancers.

4. Large cell carcinoma accounts for 10 - 15% of cases. Large cell carcinoma is a cancer composed of large-sized cells that are anaplastic in nature and often arise in the bronchi.

5. Carcinoid tumour is rare at 1 - 5%

6. Lung Cancer can also occur due to a metastatis from another cancer somewhere else in the body.

Treatment of Lung Cancer
For the purposes of treatment, lung cancers into two groups: small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) and non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC). Small cell lung cancer often is widespread by the time of diagnosis, so that treatment is limited to chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. By contrast, non-small cell carcinoma may not have spread at the time of diagnosis, so that surgical resection, or cutting away, of the tumor is possible.

Non Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC)
The three types of non-small cell lung cancer are squamous carcinoma, large cell carcinoma, and adenocarcinoma. Adenocarcinoma is the most common non-small-cell lung cancer - especially in women.
   With best supportive care alone, patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) have a median survival of 4 to 5 months and a 1-year survival rate of approximately 10%. Trials carried out in the 1980s and 1990s comparing chemotherapy to best supportive care reported variable efficacy results; however, a pivotal meta-analysis of these data indicated that cisplatin-based chemotherapy provided a survival benefit in advanced NSCLC. In the past decade newer agents such as gemcitabine (Gemzar), vinorelbine, paclitaxel, and docetaxel (Taxotere) have all demonstrated activity in NSCLC as single agents; consequently these agents have been combined with cisplatin or carboplatin.
   A Pfizer Inc. kidney cancer drug has also shown promise in a small mid-stage trial as a treatment for the most common form of lung cancer. The new study involved 63 patients whose non-small cell lung cancer had progressed despite earlier treatments with standard chemotherapy. All patients were then given Pfizer's once-daily pill, Sutent, as a stand-alone treatment and continued to take it until their disease progressed. Tumors shrank by at least 50 percent in six, or 9 percent, of the patients. They stopped growing in another 27, or 43 percent, of the patients. Sutent was generally well tolerated, with mostly mild to moderate side effects such as fatigue, nausea and shortness of breath. Sutent blocks specific proteins that allow tumor cells to grow, and therefore cause far milder side effects than standard cancer treatments that also harm healthy tissue as they go after tumor cells. U.S. regulators in January approved Sutent, whose chemical name is sunitinib, to treat kidney cancer as well as a rare stomach and intestinal cancer known as GIST. Larger trials will be needed to conclusively establish Sutent's effectiveness against lung cancer.
   In October, 2006, Avastin, the first drug designed to starve tumors of blood and nutrients, was approved as an initial treatment, in combination with chemotherapy, for patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Small Cell Lung Cancer
SCLCs are less common, but they grow more quickly and are more likely to metastasize than NSCLCs. Often, SCLCs have already spread to other parts of the body when the disease is diagnosed.
     Small cell lung cancer comprises approximately 20% of all lung cancers and continues to be a difficult management issue. More than two-thirds of cases present with extensive disease, which has spread beyond the hemithorax and regional ipsilateral nodes. While response rates to chemotherapy are relatively high, durable responses are rare, and long-term survival rates are anecdotal. Although many attempts have been made to develop new therapies, a combination of etoposide with either cisplatin or carboplatin remains the most widely used first-line therapy for extensive disease. For those with limited disease, chemotherapy with concomitant radiotherapy (given with the first or second cycles of chemotherapy) is considered the standard of care.

Treatment of Adenocarcinoma lung cancer
Patients with non-small cell lung cancer like adenocarcinoma may be treated in several ways. Surgery is the most common way to treat adenocarcinoma lung cancer. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy may also be used to slow the progress of the adenocarcinoma and to manage adenocarcinoma symptoms.

Historical perspective on herbs for cancer
Herbs have been considered natural and valuable sources for anticancer drug discovery. Herbal medicine has been prescribed in many countries over centuries for treating various diseases including infectious and malignant diseases. Nowadays, many of the drugs that have been used for treatment of malignant diseases are derived from natural products such as Taxol, a natural product isolated initially from Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia).

Lung Cancer Recurrence
Researchers say they have developed a test that can predict with near certainty whether the most common form of lung cancer will return after surgery. The new test could save tens of thousands of lives every year by letting doctors prescribe more aggressive treatments for a patient whose lung cancer is likely to reappear. Called the Lung Metagene Predictor, the test scans non-small cell lung cancer cells' genetic material to identify patterns that occur in cancers that are likely to reappear. The Lung Metagene Predictor is claimed to be 90 percent accurate.

Lung Cancer Research with herbs and vitamins
Astragalus-based Chinese herbs and platinum-based chemotherapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: meta-analysis of randomized trials.
J Clin Oncol. 2006 Jan 20;24(3):419-30. University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, Division of Epidemiology, Berkeley, CA
Systemic treatments for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer have low efficacy and high toxicity. Some Chinese herbal medicines have been reported to increase chemotherapy efficacy and reduce toxicity. In particular, Astragalus has been shown to have immunologic benefits by stimulating macrophage and natural killer cell activity and inhibiting T-helper cell type 2 cytokines. Many published studies have assessed the use of Astragalus and other Chinese herbal medicines in combination with chemotherapy. We sought to evaluate evidence from randomized trials that Astragalus-based Chinese herbal medicine combined with platinum-based chemotherapy (versus platinum-based chemotherapy alone) improves survival, increases tumor response, improves performance status, or reduces chemotherapy toxicity. Conclusion: Astragalus -based Chinese herbal medicine may increase effectiveness of platinum-based chemotherapy when combined with chemotherapy. These results require confirmation with rigorously controlled trials.

Resveratrol enhances radiosensitivity of human non-small cell lung cancer NCI-H838 cells accompanied by inhibition of nuclear factor-kappa B activation.
J Radiat Res (Tokyo). 2005 Dec;46(4):387-93.
Resveratrol, a polyphenol in red wine, possesses many pharmacological activities including cardioprotection, chemoprevention, anti-tumor effects, and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kappaB) inactivation. The present study was designed to evaluate the effects and possible mechanism of resveratrol in enhancing radiosensitivity of lung cancer cells. Our results demonstrate that resveratrol enhances the radiosensitivity of NCI-H838 cells accompanied by NF-kappaB inhibition and S-phase.

Inhibition of lung cancer cell growth by quercetin glucuronides via G2/M arrest and induction of apoptosis.
Drug Metab Dispos. 2006 Feb;34(2):296-304. Epub 2005 Nov 9. Department of Dermatology, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in many developed countries, including Taiwan. Quercetin, a widely distributed bioflavonoid, is well known to induce growth inhibition in a variety of human cancer cells. Quercetin glucuronides are the main circulating metabolites after dietary supplements with quercetin in humans. However, there is little information available as to how quercetin glucuronides affect human cancer cells. Conclusion: Taken together, we demonstrated that quercetin glucuronides inhibited proliferation through G2/M arrest of the cell cycle and induced apoptosis via caspase-3 cascade in the human lung cancer cell line NCI-H209. Delineation of the biological effects of specific major quercetin metabolites on chemotherapeutic potential or chemoprevention of human cancers warrants further investigation.

Dietary phytoestrogens and lung cancer risk.
JAMA. 2005 Sep 28;294(12):1493-504. Schabath MB, Hernandez LM, Wu X, Pillow PC, Spitz MR. Department of Epidemiology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Despite lung-specific in vitro and in vivo studies that support a chemopreventive role for phytoestrogens, there has been little epidemiologic research focused on dietary intake of phytoestrogens and risk of lung cancer. RESULTS: Reductions in risk of lung cancer tended to increase with each increasing quartile of phytoestrogen intake. The highest quartiles of total phytosterols, isoflavones, lignans, and phytoestrogens were each associated with reductions in risk of lung cancer. CONCLUSIONS: While there are limitations and concerns regarding case-control studies of diet and cancer, these data provide further support for the limited but growing epidemiologic evidence that phytoestrogens are associated with a decrease in risk of lung cancer. Confirmation of these findings is still required in large-scale, hypothesis-driven, prospective studies.

Is voluntary vitamin and mineral supplementation associated with better outcome in non-small cell lung cancer patients? Results from the Mayo Clinic lung cancer cohort.
Lung Cancer. 2005 Jul;49(1):77-84. Jatoi A, Williams B, Nichols F, Marks R, Aubry MC, Wampfler J, Finke EE, Yang P. Department of Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
Some previous studies report that 80% of cancer patients take multivitamin and/or mineral supplements. To our knowledge, the consequences of such self-directed supplementation have not been examined previously in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. The goal of this study was to determine whether vitamin/mineral supplementation is associated with improved survival and quality of life in a cohort of NSCLC patients. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin  /mineral supplementation is associated with better survival and quality of life in this cohort of NSCLC patients. Future prospective clinical trials should focus on the role of such supplements in patients with NSCLC.

Curcumin enhances Vinorelbine mediated apoptosis in NSCLC cells by the mitochondrial pathway.
Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2005 Jun 17;331(4):1245-52. Department of Biochemistry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India.
Elderly lung cancer patients and those with poor performance status/co-morbid conditions are deprived of chemotherapy because of high toxicity of multidrug regimens. Human squamous cell lung carcinoma H520 cells treated with Curcumin were sensitized to the cytotoxicity caused by chemotherapeutic agent, Vinorelbine. Both caused apoptosis by increasing the protein expression of Bax and Bcl-xs while decreasing Bcl-2 and Bcl-X(L), releasing apoptogenic cytochrome c, and augmenting the activity of caspase-9 and caspase-3. The findings suggest that Curcumin has the potential to act as an adjuvant chemotherapeutic agent and enhance chemotherapeutic efficacy of Vinorelbine in H520 cells in vitro. Thus, Curcumin offers the prospect of being beneficial in the above-mentioned patient groups.

Induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells by casuarinin from the bark of Terminalia arjuna Linn.
Anticancer Drugs. 2005 Apr;16(4):409-15. Department of Biotechnology, Chia-Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan, Taiwan.
Casuarinin, a hydrolyzable tannin isolated from the bark of Terminalia arjuna Linn. (Combretaceae), inhibits human non-small cell lung cancer A549 cells by blocking cell cycle progression in the G0/G1 phase and inducing apoptosis.

Phase I study of green tea extract in patients with advanced lung cancer.
Cancer Chemother Pharmacol. 2005 Jan;55(1):33-8. Laurie SA, Miller VA, Grant SC, Kris MG, Ng KK.
Thoracic Oncology Service, Division of Solid Tumor Oncology, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10126, USA.
Epidemiologic studies suggest that consumption of green tea may have a protective effect against the development of several cancers. Preclinical studies of green tea and its polyphenolic components have demonstrated antimutagenic and anticarcinogenic activity, and inhibition of growth of tumor cell lines and animal tumor models, including lung cancer. Green tea may also have chemopreventive properties, and enhancement of cytotoxicity of chemotherapeutic agents has been demonstrated. This trial was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of green tea extract (GTE) in patients with advanced lung cancer. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that while relatively nontoxic at a dose of 3 g/m2 per day, green tea extract likely has limited activity as a cytotoxic agent, and further study of green tea extract as a single-agent in established malignancies may not be warranted. Chronic lung disease.

Lung Cancer and Genetics
First-degree relatives of non-smoking individuals diagnosed with lung cancer have an increased likelihood of developing any type of cancer. These relatives are also more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer themselves, especially at an early age, compared with first-degree relatives of healthy non-smokers without lung cancer.

Lung cancer scan does not save lives
Screening smokers and former smokers for lung cancer with a CT scan doesn't save lives or prevent advanced disease and may lead to unneeded and harmful treatment. Some experts have hoped that the scans, which are a special kind of X-ray that can detect tiny lung abnormalities, will prevent lung cancer deaths by getting people into treatment earlier. But there hasn't been convincing evidence of that. The American Cancer Society doesn't recommend the lung cancer test, which costs $300 to $400, and most insurance companies won't pay for it. The latest research, appearing in the March 2007 Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed lung cancer deaths and cases of advanced lung cancer among 3,246 smokers and former smokers who had annual CT scans for about four years. Researchers compared deaths and advanced cancer cases with rates predicted by a mathematical model. The model -- based on a person's age, gender, asbestos exposure and smoking history -- has proven valid in previous studies. The model predicted there would be 33.4 cases of advanced cancer; there were 42. The model predicted 38.8 lung cancer deaths; there were 38. "We don't see a trace of evidence that a single life was saved, that a single case of advanced cancer was avoided," said study co-author Dr. Peter Bach of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. CT screening did increase diagnosis and treatment. The people screened were three times more likely to have lung cancer diagnosed and 10 times more likely to have lung surgery than predicted.

Farming and lung disease
Farm workers are more likely than those with other occupations to show signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is the collective term for emphysema and chronic bronchitis, progressive diseases of the airways most commonly associated with smoking. While smoking is the major risk factor for COPD, non-smokers can also develop it. Farming has been linked to other health consequences, including higher risks of asthma and lung cancer, possibly due to pesticides or other chemicals. Farmers consistently inhale "agricultural dusts," which consist of organic materials from animal and plant sources as well as inorganic materials in soil that can cause inflammation in the airways. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, June 2007.

Lung Cancer emails
Q. Please send me information what best to lung cancer treatment to take from natural herbs and supplements.
   A. We can't give individual advice but you could ask your doctor to read some of the suggestions for vitamins and nutrients for lung cancer prevention and treatment.

Lung Disease emails
Q. I recently quit smoking after many years and would like to use an herbal preparation to cleanse my lungs before lung disease sets in. Having researched herbal preparations on the internet for lung disease, I find that each site uses different herbal preparations. In you opinion which herbs cleanse the lungs and bring up phlegm?
   A. Inhaling steam, drinking plenty of warm water, and a good amount of fresh vegetable juices are a good way to start healing lung disease, along with adding a variety of spices such as ginger, onions, and garlic. The emphasis should be on eating as healthy a diet as possible. A multivitamin preparation could be helpful such as MultiVit Rx in providing the basic vitamins and minerals to maintain healthy lung tissue.