Reported earlier this week in Nature Medicine, experts predict a significant proportion of cancer cases globally are linked to “modifiable risk factors”. This report indicates that lifestyle changes could play a major role in reducing the global cancer burden.
Modifiable cancer risk factors include cancer-driving behaviors or exposures that can be changed or managed, resulting in controlling the risk of cancer. Many modifiable cancer risk factors include choices we make related to diet, such as smoking tobacco or drinking alcohol, or lifestyle, such as being sedentary or excessive unprotected sun exposure.
The report identified 30 factors that contributed to the 2022 global and national cancer burden. Some of the modifiable risk factors considered in the analysis included tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, high body mass index, low physical activity, smokeless tobacco use (including areca nut), and suboptimal breastfeeding. The researchers also included air pollution and ultraviolet radiation in the analysis. Further, the study considered nine infectious agents linked to cancer and 13 occupational exposures.
The researchers used data from 185 countries, including patients with 36 different types of cancer.
The analysis linked 37.8% of new cancer cases in 2022 to 30 modifiable risk factors. This percentage accounted for over 7 million preventable diagnoses! The contribution of modifiable risk factors to cancer incidence in men (4.3 million cases; 45.4%) was more pronounced than in women (2.7 million cases; 29.7%).
The leading modifiable risk factors contributing to the cancer burden included smoking (15.1%), infection (10.2%), and alcohol consumption (3.2%). The cancer sites most impacted by modifiable risk factors included the lung, stomach, and cervix, and these three cancer sites accounted for nearly half of the preventable cancers diagnosed in 2022.
The astounding number of cancer cases attributed to modifiable risk factors presents a strong rationale to increase efforts and messaging targeting these behaviors and lifestyle choices. These data should encourage all stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, policymakers, and individuals, to consider ways to minimize these risk factors.
Sources: Nat Med
