CLEVELAND, Ohio — Nearly 40 percent of cancer cases and roughly half of cancer deaths in the United States can be linked to avoidable risk factors. A new study from the American Cancer Society suggests.
That equates to 713,340 cancer cases and 262,120 cancer deaths in 2019, according to the organization.
Risk factors included in the study included smoking, being overweight, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, diet and infections.
Smoking is by far the largest risk factor, contributing to approximately 20% of all cancer cases and 30% of all cancer deaths.
“Despite significant declines in smoking rates over the past few decades, the number of lung cancer deaths attributable to smoking in the United States is alarming,” Dr. Farhad Islamiis senior scientific director for Cancer Disparities Research at the American Cancer Society and lead author of the report.
“Interventions to maintain healthy weight and eating habits could also significantly reduce the number of cancer cases and deaths in the country, especially considering the increased incidence of several types of cancer associated with excess weight,” Islami said in a news release.
The findings were recently published in the journal Neurology. CA: Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
In the American Cancer Society study, researchers used nationally representative data on cancer incidence and mortality, and prevalence of risk factors to estimate the proportion and number of cancer cases and deaths attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors overall and for 30 cancer types.
These risk factors include current and past smoking, passive smoking, excess body weight, alcohol consumption, consumption of red and processed meat, inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables, dietary fiber and dietary calcium, physical inactivity, ultraviolet (UV) light, and various infections such as hepatitis B and C, human immunodeficiency virus and human papillomavirus.
Other highlights from the report include:
- Smoking accounts for the largest proportion of cancer cases attributable to avoidable risk factors, accounting for 56.0% of all potentially preventable cancers in men and 39.9% in women.
- Excess weight was the second most common risk factor for the proportion of cancer cases attributable to these factors (7.6%), followed by alcohol use (5.4%), UV exposure (4.6%), and physical inactivity (3.1%).
- By cancer type, the proportion of cases driven by potentially modifiable risk factors ranged from 100% for cervical cancer to 4.9% for ovarian cancer.
- Additionally, cutaneous melanoma (92.2%) and anal cancer (94.2%), laryngeal cancer (89.9%), lung cancer (88.2%), esophageal cancer (85.4%), and oral cavity cancer (83.7%) were attributable to avoidable risk factors.
Jules Washington covers health care Cleveland. read The previous article can be found at this link.
