In a big development in the field of cancer treatment, the scientists have found that at least 600,000 cases of cancer, i.e. about 40 percent cases, can be prevented by making healthier lifestyle choices and adopting them regularly.
The researchers at the Cancer Research UK (CRUK) conducted a study on nearly 587,000 people residing in Britain and found that they developed cancer over a five-year period because of their poor lifestyle choices like alcohol consumption and tobacco use.
Linda Bauld, a cancer prevention expert at Cancer Research UK, said, “There are more than 200 types of cancer each caused by a complex set of factors, involving both our lifestyles and our genes.”
According to the health experts, the people must make healthier lifestyle choices like doing exercise, eating healthy food, consuming fewer preprocessed meats, defeating weight problem, saying no to alcohol and cigarettes or tobacco and many more.
The researchers found that smoking tobacco was the most dangerous behavior found in the participants that were responsible for causing cancers in large numbers. In the study, smoking tobacco accounted for about 20 percent of all cancers examined, i.e. 314,600 cases. On the other hand, the researchers found that poor diet, which also included too much red meat and lesser fruits and green vegetables, was responsible for 144,800 examined cancer cases.
While obesity and excess weight problem resulted in causing cancers in 88,100 patients, alcohol sickened 62,200 people with cancers. It was followed by the excessive UV radiation from sunlight by causing 55,900 cancer cases. Lack of physical activity contributed to 16,500 cancer diagnosis in the study.
In its study’s findings, Cancer Research UK reported, “An estimated 42 percent of cancer cases each year in Britain are associated with a combination of 14 major lifestyle and other factors.”
“The proportion is higher in men (45 percent) as compared to women (40 percent), mainly due to sex differences in smoking,” the report further said.
According to the CRUK researchers, quitting of smoking habit by just a one percent of smokers can lead to the prevention of 3,000 cases of cancers in the UK alone.
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