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When we speak of risk factors for cancer, we're talking
about anything that raises a person's chances of getting some form of
the disease. Often these risk factors can be changed to lower the
person's chances of getting cancer; other risk factors cannot be changed.
Some of the most common risk factors for various kinds of cancer include
the person's sex, age, and family history. Other risk factors are
linked to things in the environment. And still others have more
to do with the person's lifestyle choices, such as whether to use alcohol
or tobacco, whether to expose oneself to the sun, and what to eat.
If a risk factor for cancer is present, this means that the likelihood
of that person developing the cancer at some point in his life is greater
than for the person without that risk factor. However, having one
or even several risk factors doesn't mean that the person will necessarily
get cancer. Some people have multiple risk factors and never get
the disease. Still others apparently have no risk factors, yet get
cancer. Further confusing the matter is the fact that we can never
definitively prove that a person with cancer got it because of any particular
risk factor. At best, an understanding of risk factors just helps
us get a better understanding of whose statistical odds are slightly more
than the population as a whole.
There are different risk factors associated with different cancers. Some
of the most significant factors include:
• Tobacco use. This includes smoking cigarettes, pipes,
cigars, and using chewing tobacco or snuff. Cancers associated with
tobacco use include mouth, bladder, larynx, kidney, esophagus, cervix,
pancreas, and perhaps most importantly, lung cancer. Studies show
that smoking tobacco causes a third of all cancer-related deaths.
• Exposure to too much sunlight. This results in skin cancer
for some.
• Several factors affect a person's chance of developing breast
cancer, including age, hormone-level changes throughout her life, age
of first menstruation, age at menopause, number of pregnancies, obesity,
and physical inactivity. There is also some evidence of a link between
consuming too much alcohol and development of breast cancer. Also,
a family history, i.e., a sister or mother who had the disease, has a
higher likelihood of developing the disease.
• Every man is at risk for developing prostate cancer. However,
a number of risk factors raise his chances of getting the disease. These
include age, diet and race. Age is the most important of these,
with a man's chance of developing prostate cancer going up with each year
of life. Also, the disease is more common in African-American men.
Family history also plays a role, with those who have a father or brother
who had prostate cancer more likely to get it themselves.
• There are environmental factors that include exposure to certain
chemicals and radiation, that are linked with
• Almost all cancers seem to have some link with eating an unhealthy
diet, with those who eat less animal fat and more fruits and vegetables
having overall lower cancer rates in nearly every cancer category.
While nobody can completely eliminate the chances of developing cancer, by changing to a healthier way of living he or she dramatically improves the odds of remaining cancer-free.