Risk factors for lung cancer-Modulation of the level of antidotes to polycyclic hydrocarbons (PAH) in relation to smoking, tumorous and non-tumorous lung disease and research of a possible strengthening of the immune system against PAH by immunization.

The thesis is divided in two parts; the first of which, following the initial statistics regarding occurrence of the lung cancer and outline of its history, is devoted to the issue of risk factors of development of this disease. Due to the fact that the main focus of the research work is the genotoxic effect of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a closer attention is paid to them. The beginning of the second part deals briefly with certain lung diseases, i.e. the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and the lung cancer and the role of inflammation in pathophysiology of both diseases. The rest of the thesis is focused on the research project Modulation of the level of antidotes to polycyclic hydrocarbons (PAH) in relation to smoking, tumorous and non-tumorous lung disease, and research of a possible strengthening of the immune system against the PAH effects by immunization. The main objective of the project was to verify the presence, change of levels and protective effect of the antibodies against the PAH and PAH-DNA adducts in the serum after impact of the pure PAH and cigarette smoke and the application of an epidemiologic study to discover the influence of the level of the anti-PAH antibodies and other tested parameters on the risk of developing a lung disease. In addition to the results proper,..