Four in 10 cancer cases could be prevented by lifestyle changes

Smoking biggest culprit; obesity second

clock • 2 min read

Research by Cancer Research UK has indicated more than 2,500 cancer cases a week could be avoided in the UK through lifestyle changes, with the two biggest causes of the disease smoking and obesity.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Cancer, show more than 135,000 cases of cancer could be prevented each year - around four in 10 cases - by simple changes such as stopping smoking, healthy weight, eating healthily and cutting back on alcohol. Dr Katrina Brown, who led the analysis at Cancer Research UK, said: "We took data from national surveys showing how common each risk factor is in the population, and data from the UK cancer registries showing how many cases of each cancer type there are. Then we searched published research for information on how much each risk facto...

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