Dietary Modulation of Tobacco-Specific Carcinogen Activation

More than 85% of all lung cancer cases are associated to cigarette smoking (1). Among the 3800 different compounds present in cigarette smoke,50 of them have been identified as animal carcinogens (2). The N-nitrosamine, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-l-butanone (NNK) derived from nicotine during the curing and burning of tobacco is abundant in cigarette smoke (3). This N-nitrosamine has a remarkable organospecificity for lung tissues. Lung tumors are induced by this N-nitrosamine in rodents whether it is injected s. c., applied topically or by swabbing the oral mucosa (3). These results suggest that NNK could be a tobacco component involved in human pulmonary carcinogenesis. In chemoprevention studies, this N-nitrosamine provides not only an excellent model of lung carcinogenesis, but it is also a carcinogen ubiquitous in the human environment. Numerous epidemiological studies have concluded that vegetable consumption was associated with reduced lung cancer risk (4). The aim of our research program is to investigate how vegetables and fruits nutrients can inhibit pulmonary carcinogenesis induced by NNK in experimental animals. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.