ONE in four cancer cases and half of all deaths could be avoided, a new study suggests. Researchers found they were attributable to things we can change in our lives, like smoking , alcohol consumption and not doing enough exercise. 2 Smoking is the biggest 'modifiable risk factor' when it comes to cancer Credit: Alamy Scientists at the American Cancer Society (ACS) studied data for 30 different types of cancer in adults over the age of 30 in the United States in 2019.
They looked at the number of cases and deaths, and whether they were linked to "modifiable risk factors" , including: Cigarette smoking (current and former) Secondhand smoke Excess body weight Alcohol consumption Consumption of red and processed meat Low consumption of fruits and vegetables, dietary fibre, and dietary calcium Physical inactivity Ultraviolet (UV) radiation Infection with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), Helicobacter pylori, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human herpes virus-8 (HHV-8; also called Kaposi sarcoma herpesvirus), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and human papillomavirus (HPV) The team found 40 per cent of all cases (713,340) and about half of deaths (262,120) could be attributed to the factors above. Analysis showed smoking to have the highest proportion of cases attributed to it - at 19.3 per cent, or 344,070.
Cigarettes contributed to 56 per cent (206,550 of 368,600) of all potentially preventable cancers in men, and 39.9 per cent (137,520 of 344,740) in women. Being o.
