Few studies have directly compared the efficiencies of gene delivery methods that target normal lung cells versus lung tumor cells. We report the first study directly comparing the efficiency and toxicity of viral [adeno-associated virus (AAV2, 5, 6) and lentivirus], nonviral (Effectene, SuperFect and Lipofectamine 2000) and physical [particle-mediated gene transfer (PMGT)] methods of gene delivery in normal mouse lung cells and in mouse adenocarcinoma cells. Lentivirus pseudotyped with the vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein was the most efficient gene transfer method for normal mouse airway epithelial cells [25.95 (+/-3.57) %] whereas AAV6 was most efficient for MLE-12 adenocarcinoma cells [68.2 (+/-3.2) %]. PMGT was more efficient in normal mouse airway epithelial cells than AAV5, Lipofectamine 2000 and SuperFect. AAV5 displayed the lowest transfection efficiency at less than 10% in both cell types. PMGT was the only method that resulted in significant toxicity. In summary, for all of the gene delivery methods examined here, lung tumor cells were transfected more easily than normal lung cells. Lipofectamine 2000 is potentially highly selective for lung tumor cells whereas AAV6 and lentivirus vesicular stomatitis virus glycoprotein may be useful for gene delivery strategies that require targeting of both normal and tumor cells.