(Ivanhoe Newswire) — More than one-third of cancer deaths worldwide are caused by nine identifiable risk factors, according to new research based on data from 2001.
Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health in Boston found risk factors include: overweight/obesity status; low fruit and vegetable intake, physical inactivity, smoking, alcohol, unsafe sex, urban air pollution, indoor smoke from household use of coal, and contaminated injections in health care settings. In low and middle-income countries, the three leading risk factors were smoking, alcohol use, and low fruit and vegetable intake. In high-income countries, leading factors were smoking, alcohol use, and being overweight or obesity.
Study investigators say, “Primary prevention through lifestyle and environmental interventions remains the main route for reducing the global cancer burden. If implemented, reduction of exposure to well-known behavioral and environmental risk factors would prevent a substantial proportion of deaths from cancer.”
SOURCE: The Lancet, 2005;366:1784-1793