Cancer is not due to bad luck but a result of environmental factors, a study suggests
Cancer is caused by one of the body’s own stem cells dividing out of control. It can be caused by intrinsic factors like mutations that occur every time a cell divides, or extrinsic factors such as smoking, UV radiation and many others that have not been identified.
The team of doctors from the Stony Brook Cancer Centre in New York approached the problem from different angles, including computer modelling, population data and genetic approaches.
Dr Yusuf Hannun, the director of Stony Brook, told: “External factors play a big role. The results consistently suggested 70-90% of the risk was due to extrinsic factors. There is still an issue as not all of the extrinsic risk has been identified and not all of it may be avoidable. While healthy habits like not smoking, keeping a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet and cutting back on alcohol are not a guarantee against cancer, they do dramatically reduce the risk of developing the disease.”