FORTY-TWO PERCENT OF NEW CANCER MAY BE AVOIDED if you make risk-reducing lifestyle changes. Small changes can result in outsized changes in risk. This article explores 3 ways to drop your cancer risk.
The diagnosis was immediate: Masses matting the lungs and deforming the spine. Cancer. In my neurosurgical training, I reviewed hundreds of scans for fellow doctors to see if surgery offered hope. I’d scribble in the chart, ‘Widely metastatic disease — no role for surgery,’ and move on. But this scan was different: It was my own. — Paul Kalanithi
When Breath Becomes Air
www.amazon.com
Cancer Problem Scope
The US National Cancer Institute (NCI) reminds us of the problem scope:
- In 2020, an estimated 1.8 million new cancer cases were discovered in the United States, and over 600,000 died.
- The most common cancers (in descending order ) are breast, lung and bronchus, prostate, colorectal, skin melanoma, bladder, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney and renal pelvis, and uterus cancer.
- Prostate, lung, and colorectal cancers account for an estimated 43 percent of all cancers diagnosed in men in 2020. For women, the three most common cancers are breast, lung, and colorectal, and they will account for half of all new cancer diagnoses.
Cancer is among the top causes of death worldwide. In 2018, there were 18.1 million new cases (and 9.5 million cancer-related deaths).
Moreover, by 2040, the number of annual new cancer cases is projected to rise to 29.5 million. Cancer-related deaths will be 16.4 million. Let’s turn to the three ways you may be able to drop your cancer risk.
Cancer Trends — Some Good News
One way to gauge progress is to compare mortality trends to incidence ones. If death rates drop more rapidly than does incidence (or if death rates drop while incidence rises), this may reflect better cancer detection and management.
For example, improved treatments likely contributed greatly to recent sharp declines in lung cancer mortality rates. Here are the statistics for the United States, indicating that since the early 1990s, overall cancer death rates have dropped by:
- 1.4 percent per year among women from 2001 to 2017.
- 1.8 percent per year among men from 2001 to 2017.
- 1.4 percent among children (to age 14) from 2013 to 2017
These figures are according to the 2020 Annual Report to the Nation. Let’s turn to three key ways to reduce your cancer risk.
1. Don’t smoke, don’t vape.
You probably already know that cigarette smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer. Smoking is linked to approximately eight to nine out of 10 lung cancer deaths in the United States.
Using alternative tobacco products such as pipes or cigars doesn’t give you a pass: They also increase lung cancer risk. Tobacco smoke contains at least 70 substances known to cause cancer in people or animals.
Smoke cigarettes, and you have a 15 to 30 times higher risk of getting (or dying from) lung cancer, according to the US National Institutes of Health.
And daily smoking of just a few cigarettes daily increases cancer risk. Still, the more years a person smoked and the more cigarettes consumed daily, the higher the risk.
Finally, many of my patients associate tobacco use with lung cancer. But cigarette smoking is also associated with cancer of the mouth and throat, esophagus, stomach, colon, rectum, liver, pancreas, voicebox (larynx), trachea, bronchus, kidney and renal pelvis, urinary bladder, and cervix, and causes acute myeloid leukemia.
The good news? Quitting smoking at any age can lower your cancer risk.
2. Watch your weight.
Being overweight or obese increases cancer risk. The American Cancer Society offers that excess body weight is responsible for about one out of nine (11 percent) cancer in women and one in 20 (five percent) in men. Too much weight is linked with approximately seven percent of all cancer-related deaths.
Here are the cancers linked with being overweight or obese:
- Breast cancer (in women past menopause)
- Colon and rectal cancer
- Endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus)
- Esophagus cancer
- Gallbladder cancer
- Kidney cancer
- Liver cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Pancreas cancer
- Stomach cancer
- Thyroid cancer
- Multiple myeloma
- Meningioma (a tumor of the lining of the brain and spinal cord)
Being overweight or obese might raise the risk of other cancers, including:
- Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
- Male breast cancer
- Cancers of the mouth, throat, and voice box
- Aggressive forms of prostate cancer
The association of excess weight is stronger for some cancer than for others.
Does losing weight lower your risk of getting cancer? The evidence is limited but suggests that weight loss might reduce the risk of certain cancers, including uterus and post-menopausal breast cancer.
Here’s one way to see if your body fat is putting you at risk. Measuring waist-to-hip ratio is better than BMI (body mass index).
Step 1: Loop a tape measure around your waist at the smallest point. Note the number.
Step 2: Measure your hips’ widest part. Note that, too.
Step 3: Divide the number you got for your waist by the number you got for your hips.
Results for men:
1.0 or over = elevated risk
0.99 or below = normal risk
A woman with a ratio of 0.6 which then increased to 0.7, would have a 1.2 times greater risk of developing womb cancer, according to one study. For every extra increase, the risk would rise further.
The World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) advises that a ratio above 0.85 for women or 0.90 for men is a sign of obesity.
3. Clean up your grooming gear.
I am becoming increasingly aware of carcinogenic substances in personal care products. To comprehend the product labels, I must revisit my undergraduate chemistry classes (hard pass).
Enter the Environmental Working Group with its search-friendly database (ewg.org/skindeep). On the website, you will find nearly 90,000 safe personal-care products. You can also look for the EWG Verified label, indicating that the product is free of unsafe chemicals.
That’s it for today. I will save discussions about avoiding sedentary behavior, not consuming alcohol to excess, watching your sun exposure, getting sufficient sleep, and other cancer risk factors for another day. Of course, screening for prostate, cervix, colorectal, breast, and (for selected individuals) lung cancer is important, too.
Key points — 3 Key Ways to Drop Your Cancer Risk
Question. How much of cancer is potentially preventable through lifestyle choices?
Findings. More than 4 in 10 cancers are potentially avoidable.
Meaning. Survival rates for those with cancer continue to improve. Still, there are ways many of us can significantly drop our risk of getting (or dying from) the disease by adopting good lifestyle habits.
If you know someone with colorectal cancer, here is my book on the subject:
Dr. Michael Hunter’s Colon and Rectal Cancer Book
Dr. Michael Hunter’s Colon and Rectal Cancer Book is a must-have resource for colon or rectal cancer patients.
The information I provided in this blog is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider for medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. I am not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information in this blog.
Thank you for reading “3 Key Ways to Drop Cancer Risk.”
