Healthy lifestyle could prevent half of cancer deaths
A healthy lifestyle could prevent half of cancer deaths, according to research from The Journal of the American Medical Association.
According to the study, a large number of cancer cases could be prevented if people stopped smoking, stopped heavy drinking, maintained a BMI within 18.5 and 27.5, and got moderate exercise or vigorous exercise.
Researchers from Harvard analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study, the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, and US national cancer statistics to find links between lifestyle and cancer risk.
The study abstract outlined the following results:
“A total of 89 571 women and 46 339 men from 2 cohorts were included in the study: 16 531 women and 11 731 men had a healthy lifestyle pattern (low-risk group), and the remaining 73 040 women and 34 608 men made up the high-risk group. Within the 2 cohorts, the PARs for incidence and mortality of total carcinoma were 25% and 48% in women, and 33% and 44% in men, respectively. For individual cancers, the respective PARs in women and men were 82% and 78% for lung, 29% and 20% for colon and rectum, 30% and 29% for pancreas, and 36% and 44% for bladder. Similar estimates were obtained for mortality. The PARs were 4% and 12% for breast cancer incidence and mortality, and 21% for fatal prostate cancer. Substantially higher PARs were obtained when the low-risk group was compared with the US population. For example, the PARs in women and men were 41% and 63% for incidence of total carcinoma, and 60% and 59% for colorectal cancer, respectively.”
“These findings reinforce the predominate importance of lifestyle factors in determining cancer risk. Therefore, primary prevention should remain a priority for cancer control,” the authors conclude.
“We have a history of long delays from discovery to translating knowledge to practice. As a society, we need to avoid procrastination induced by thoughts that chance drives all cancer risk or that new medical discoveries are needed to make major gains against cancer, and instead we must embrace the opportunity to reduce our collective cancer toll by implementing effective prevention strategies and changing the way we live. It is these efforts that will be our fastest return on past investments in cancer research over the coming decades,” write Graham A. Colditz, M.D., Dr.P.H., and Siobhan Sutcliffe, Ph.D., of Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.
The study showing that a healthy lifestyle could prevent half of cancer deaths was published The Journal of the American Medical Association.
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REFERENCES:
1. “Can a Healthy Lifestyle Prevent Cancer?” The JAMA Network. The JAMA Network, n.d. Web. 27 May 2016.
2. “Lifestyle Factors Associated With US Cancer Incidence and Mortality.” JAMA Network. JAMA Oncology, n.d. Web. 27 May 2016.
3. “Healthy Living Could Prevent Half of Deaths from Cancer.” Fox News. FOX News Network, 23 May 2016. Web. 27 May 2016.
