Vitamin B6 Linked to 60% Lower Lung Cancer Risk

Smokers don't often get good news. But scientists say they may have discovered a reason why some smokers get lung cancer and others do not. And the answer, surprisingly enough, is a vitamin.

According to a study conducted by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and published this month in Journal of the American Medical Association, people, including smokers, whose blood contained high levels of vitamin B6 and an amino acid called methionine were 60 percent less likely to develop lung cancer.

But don't take a smoke break to rejoice just yet. Scientists cautioned that not smoking is the best way to avoid lung cancer and a host of other diseases, and it's not clear that eating foods rich in B6 like red meat, fortified cereal, and bananas or those high in methionine like sesame seeds, fish and soy will actually help.

"This indicates that diet may have an important role in lung cancer development," Paul Brennan of the IARC told Reuters. "But it's still a little premature to say simply that if you change your diet and eat more foods with these vitamins then you'll change your future lung cancer risk."

The study's authors say that after studying the blood of around 2700 people, 900 of whom had lung cancer, they still were not certain why higher levels of B6 and methionine were linked to a reduced risk for cancer.

"What we have found is that these two things are strong markers of lung cancer risk, but we have not shown they are causing that rise in risk," Brennan told Reuters.

Lung cancer kills 1.2 million people each year. Ninety percent of the cases are attributed to smoking.