How Can 40% of Cancers Be Prevented?

“We are not helpless in the face of cancer” is the motto of the National Cancer Institute (INCa) campaign unveiled on Wednesday 15 July. It is an opportunity to remind people that some risk factors can be avoided: tobacco, alcohol, a balanced diet, and a sedentary lifestyle.

Age, sex, genetic heritage — These would be the major risk factors that can not be avoided in the development of cancer, which we can not act on.

But other avoidable risk factors do exist and they are linked to our behavior and lifestyles. According to INCa, operating on these causes would reduce the chance of contracting cancer by 40%.

The tobacco is the first of these factors. The Institute states that smoking causes 68,000 new cases and 45,000 deaths each year: it is the primary cause of 80 percent of lung cancers, 70 percent of aerodigestive cancers and 35 percent of bladder cancers.

Quitting smoking also means substantially reducing the risk of contracting these cancers, but also liver, pancreatic and breast cancers, in which tobacco plays a part.

A fifth of French citizens aged 18 to 75 were smokers every day in 2019.

Two glasses a day, not every day.

Alcohol consumption is the second preventable risk factor for cancer development. It is responsible for 28,000 new cases and 16,000 deaths every year in France.

Alcohol raises the risk of contracting cancer of the rectum or of the colon, breast, liver, oesophagus … It is now advised that, to reduce the risks, you should drink no more than two glasses a day, and not every day.

Finally, as per data from 2015, the excess weight in France is 54% for men and 44% for women aged 18 to 74. This is another aspect in which everybody should function by adjusting their habits of eating and taking part in physical exercise.

Of starters, the intake of fatty foods, sugary beverages and a lot of meat is associated with an increased risk of contracting cancer.

Conversely, Mediterranean diet and fiber intake minimize this risk. As far as physical fitness is concerned, that does not involve running a marathon every week, but walking or riding for half an hour a day.

Note: In France, almost 400,000 people are affected by cancer yearly, and more than 157,000 dies of it. According to INCa, 140,000 cancers are related to avoidable risk factors.

Source: Le Progres