Cancer Risk Due to Smoking, Unhealthy Diet, Lack of Physical Activity, and Infections Is Preventable

In the current year, an estimated 85 072 cases of cancer will have been caused by smoking. This corresponds to 19% of all new cases. In men, the proportion of lung cancers due to tobacco consumption is 89% and in women, 83%. Overweight and a lack of physical activity/exercise account for 7% and 6% of the expected cancer burden, respectively, and constitute the main risk for uterine and renal cancers. In overweight

The authors make a plea for more stringent prevention measures in terms of tobacco and alcohol consumption, overweight, unhealthy diet, and lacking physical exercise. They also call for targeted preventive measures regarding infections and environmental factors. But they highlight that further research is needed in order to identify and quantify environmental risks more comprehensively.

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Deutsches Aerzteblatt International

Citation:  Cancers due to smoking and high alcohol consumption—estimation of the attributable cancer burden in Germany Mons U, Gredner T, Behrens G, Stock C, Brenner H: . Dtsch Arztebl Int 2018; 115: 571–7. DOI:10.3238/arztebl.2018.0571
URL: https://www.aerzteblatt.de/pdf.asp?id=199685