Nearly Half of All US Cancer Deaths Could be Prevented with Lifestyle Changes, New Study Finds

A new study has found that nearly half of all cancer deaths among adults 30 and over could be prevented with lifestyle changes.

The American Cancer Society study found that smoking was the top risk factor by a wide margin, contributing to at least one in five cancer cases and a third of the deaths.

Other risk factors included excess body weight, alcohol consumption, being sedentary, diet, and infections such as HPV.

After smoking, excess body weight was the second highest contributor, followed by alcohol consumption, UV radiation exposure, and physical inactivity.

“These are things that people can practically change how they live every single day to reduce their risk of cancer,” Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer with the American Cancer Society, told CNN.

The ACS reports:

“An estimated 40.0% of all incident cancers in adults aged 30 years and older in the United States in 2019 (713,340 of 1,781,649 incident cancer cases excluding nonmelanoma skin cancer) were attributable to the potentially modifiable risk factors evaluated in this analysis (Figure 1). The corresponding proportion was 40.5% in men (368,600 of 909,295) and 39.5% in women (344,740 of 872,354). Cigarette smoking had the largest PAF and attributable cancer cases (344,070 cases; 19.3% of all cases), contributing to 56.0% of all potentially preventable cancers in men (206,550 of 368,600) and 39.9% in women (137,520 of 344,740). Excess body weight had the second largest PAF (7.6%), followed by alcohol consumption (5.4%), UV radiation exposure (4.6%), and physical inactivity (3.1%).”

“With cancer, it oftentimes feels like you have no control,” Kamal explained. “People think about bad luck or bad genetics, but people need to feel a sense of control and agency.”

The CNN report added, “There were 10 types of cancer where modifiable risk factors could be attributed to at least 80% of new cases, including more than 90% of melanoma cases linked to ultraviolet radiation and nearly all cases of cervical cancer linked to HPV infection, which can be prevented with a vaccine.”

“Lung cancer had the largest number of cases attributable to modifiable risk factors — more than 104,000 cases among men and 97,000 among women — and the vast majority were linked to smoking,” the report stated.

On the positive side, lifestyle changes can quickly reduce cancer risks.

“Cancer is something your body fights every single day as your cells divide,” Kamal said. “It’s a risk that you face every day, and that also means that the reduction of the risks can benefit you every day as well.”

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