United States: Nearly half of all cancer deaths and four out of ten cancer cases are linked to lifestyle choices, a new study says. The most significant risk is cigarette smoking, which causes 30% of cancer deaths and 20% of cancer cases.
Additional Risk Factors
Other factors like being overweight, drinking alcohol, not exercising, poor diet, and missing cancer-preventing vaccinations also increase the risk of getting or dying from cancer.
For the study the researchers concluded the data nationwide on the cancer for 2019 and its risk factors to estimate the number of the cases and deaths that can cause to lifestyle risk factors.
Detailed Findings
As reported in U.S. News, Cigarette smoking contributes to 56 percent of all the potentially preventable cancers in the men and 40 percent of those in women, results show.
“The number of lung cancer deaths are related to cigarette smoking in the United States is alarming,” given that smoking has greatly declined during the past few decades, lead researcher Dr. Farhad Islami senior scientific director of cancer disparity research at the American Cancer Society, said in a news release.
However these particular findings underscores the importance of implementing the comprehensive tobacco control policies in each state which promotes smoking cessation.
Need for Comprehensive Policies
Excess body weight that is contributed to almost 8 percent of the potentially preventable cancers and alcohol consumption to about 5 percent of the exposure to the sun’s UV radiation about 5 percent and physical inactivity about 3 percent.
Looking at a very specific types of the researchers found that some could be completely or significantly avoided through lifestyle choices.
Prevention Potential
Lifestyle choices behind 92 percent of melanomas, and 94 percent of the anal cancers and 88 percent of the lung cancer and 85 percent of the throat cancer and almost 83 percent of the oral cancer researchers estimated.