Cancer has been in the news these last few weeks, and the news has been decidedly more hopeful than in the past. Based on a series of recent studies and meta-analyses, scientists are now increasingly and more definitively prioritizing our risk factors for many common and aggressive cancers, allowing us all to reduce our chances of getting these diseases by as much as half. And at least as importantly, long-envisioned immunotherapy regimes for treating existing cancers are entering clinical trials and showing early results that are promising if not remarkable.
British Journal of Cancer (BJC) concluded that readily alterable lifestyle choices accounted for over 40% of cancers in the UK, prompting calls there for urgent public action. These high-risk factors include: 1) smoking, 2) being overweight, 3) an unnatural absence of fruits and vegetables from our diet, 4) excessive alcohol consumption, and 5) immoderate sun and UV exposure.