Objective: To understand the relationship between green tea drinking and/or garlic consumption and lung cancer.
Methods: A population-based case-control study was conducted in Ganyu county, Jiangsu province. Epidemiological data including demography, lifestyle, environmental exposures and dietary habits were collected by face-to-face interviews using a standardized questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (OR) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) in both univariate and multivariate analyses.
Results: Both green tea drinking and garlic consumption were inversely associated with lung cancer and the adjusted ORs were: 0.78 (95%CI: 0.65 - 0.95) for green tea, 0.79 (95%CI: 0.66 - 0.95) for garlic intake, and 0.69 (95%CI: 0.53 - 0.89) for both, respectively. They also modified the associations of smoking, fried food intake and cooking oil under high-temperature with lung cancer as risk factors. Potential interactions were found between garlic or green tea and the risk factors of lung cancer.
Conclusion: Both green tea drinking and garlic consumption might serve as protective factors on lung cancer.