Study: Red Wine Slows Lung Cancer, White Raises Risk
 (London, Reuters, 10/28/04)

Professor Juan Barros-Dios, Adolfo Figueiras and Dr Alberto Ruano-Ravina of the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, studied the effects of wine drinking in 132 lung cancer patients and 187 people hospitalized for minor surgery. The investigators found that red wine was linked to a small decrease in lung cancer risk; whereas white wine increased the risk slightly. Scientists speculate that, while all wine contains ethanol, a gene mutator, the beneficial components in red wine—like tannins, which act as antioxidants, and resveratrol, which blocks tumor growth—outweigh the gene damage; whereas white wine does not contain these counterbalancing substances. The study examined only “wine’s anti-cancer component,” not its overall physiological effects, so these results should not be considered an endorsement of wine-drinking.

(Thorax, October 2004)