Nine Out Of Ten Cancers Caused By Lifestyle, Environment

For most of the last 100 years, the dominant theory in cancer research has been that cancer is simply the result of bad luck. Random mutations in DNA result in carcinogenesis, or the inability of a cell to use its normal mechanisms to repair DNA damage when it occurs. Some cancers are heritable, but most cancer, the view used to be, are caused by factors beyond individual control.

Now cancer researchers see the primary causes of cancer as outside the individual, in lifestyle and environment. These factors are not unavoidable or inevitable. Making the right lifestyle choices and living in the right location may be the key to avoiding as many as nine out of ten cases of cancer.

Putting DNA Mutation in Context

The reason researchers used to think that DNA mutations drove cancer is that the more often a cell divides, the more likely it is to undergo DNA mutations. This meshed with the observation that more cancers occur in the elderly, whose cells have replaced themselves many times, and in organs that turn over cells rapidly, such as the colon. Every division of a cell carries the risk of DNA mutations, some of which will cause cancer. Environmental factors, scientists thought, simply are a different way to cause mutated DNA, but the important risk factors were thought to be internal. This would mean that early detection is the most effective strategy against cancer. To be sure, there are some risk factors like hepatitis C for liver cancer and smoking for lung cancer that could be controlled, but for most people, "the Big C has got your number," and only starting treatment as soon as possible after mutations occur can be helpful.

A team at Stony Brook University in New York led by Dr. Yusuf Hannun took a different look at epidemiological data. Hannun and his colleagues noticed that when people moved from places that have low cancer rates to places that have high cancer rates, their rates of cancer increased. They noticed that exposure to UV rays from the sun produces a consistent pattern of mutations in the DNA of the skin that lead to cancer. The effects of radiaiton are not random. They created mathematical models of mutation in breast, prostate, and colon cancer that found that mutations alone are never enough to account for most kinds of cancer. There has to be some kind of outside trigger that accounts for the progression of a cancer cell to a cancerous tumor. If these observations are valid, then cancer prevention is possible.

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Naturally, academics debate over which view of cancer is legitimate. There are kinds of cancer that fall more clearly in the "environmental factors" group, such as liver cancer, lung cancer, and basal cell carcinoma, and there are cancers for which there is a clear cancer gene, such as the breast, uterine, and ovarian cancers that can be predicted by BRCA-1 testing. While experts debate over the causes of cancer, it seems only prudent to avoid those things that can give you cancer.

Fifty Things That Can Give You Cancer

Nearly all of us have some favorite food, some favorite product, or some favorite activity that is associated with a higher rate of cancer. The fact is, nothing on this list is sure to kill you. The majority of smokers, for example, don't die of lung cancer, although they are far more likely than non-smokers to develop the disease. The majority of consumers of sausages and lunch meat don't die of colon cancer, although they are more likely to develop that disease.

No single factor on this list is punishable by a death sentence, but the more of this list that is part of your life, the more likely you are to develop cancer as you age. Make prudent choices. Enjoy your life, but avoid excesses.

Cancer risk factors include:

1. Extreme age (over 85).
2. Smoking, especially with exposure to other atmospheric carcinogens, such as dust, ash, carbon particles from vehicle exhaust, household heating fires (wood and kerosene), and industrial chemicals.
3. Second-hand tobacco smoke.
4. Smokeless tobacco products.
5. Ultraviolet light from the sun, especially on fair skin.
6. Sunlamps and sun beds for tanning.
7. Vitamin D deficiencies.
8. Coal tar products, either exposure to coal tar production or use of coal tar products on the skin.
9. Talcum powder (risk factor for ovarian cancer).
10. Plants containing aristolochic acid (used in Chinese herbal medicine, but banned in the US, Canada, and EU). If you are using Chinese herbal medicine elsewhere, it's OK to inquire about its safety.
11. Chinese-style salted fish and fish sauce, if consumed uncooked.
12. Sawdust, breathed in over a period of years.
13. Processed meats containing either nitrates or nitrites.
14. Asbestos, now banned in the US and many other countries.
15. Arsenic and inorganic arsenic compounds. Arsenic in plants is not as toxic as inorganic arsenic compounds.
16. Oral contraceptives, sequential forms of hormonal contraception (a period of estrogen-only followed by a period of both estrogen and a progestogen).
17. Hormonal contraceptives containing both estrogen and progesterone.
18. Estrogen therapy after menopause.
19. Beverage alcohol.
20. Drinking scalding hot beverages on a regular basis.
21. Chronic hepatitis B infection.
22. Chronic hepatitis C infection.
23. Human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 56, 58, 59 and 66.
24. Chronic exposure to formaldehyde.
25. Nickel compounds consumed with food or in water.
26. Cadmium contamination in food or water.
27. Mercury contamination in fish or fish oil.

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1. Crystalline silica dust (inhaled in the form of quartz or cristobalite from occupational sources).
2. Thiotepa (1,1’,1”-phosphinothioylidynetrisaziridine), a chemotherapy drug.
3. Etoposide alone and in combination with cisplatin and bleomycin in cancer treatment.
4. Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) chemotherapy for cancer.
5. Radiation therapy for cancer.
6. MOPP and other combined chemotherapy including alkylating agents.
7. Methoxsalen (8-Methoxypsoralen) plus ultraviolet A-radiation for psoriasis.
8. Any kind of particulate matter in outdoor air pollution.
9. Infection with Opisthorchis viverrini, a Southeast Asian liver parasite.
10. Human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV) infection.
11. Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type-I infection
12. Epstein-Barr virus infection.
13. Helicobacter pylori (peptic ulcer bacteria) infection.
14. Schistosomiasis infection.
15. Human herpes virus 8 (HHV-8) infection, almost always in people who have HIV.
16. Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCV) infection, which can cause an aggressive form of skin cancer.
17. Radon, trapped in basements in houses built over radioactive rock formations.
18. Diethylsilbesterol (DES) exposure before birth (most common among people born in the 1950's and 1960's).
19. Low-iodine diets (risk factor for follicular thyroid cancer).
20. Diets devoid of plant foods.
21. Excessive CT (computed tomography) scans.
22. Direct exposure to nuclear radiation.
23. Secondary exposure to nuclear fallout.