With scientific prevention, 60% of cancers can be avoided What triggers cancer? Yu Juan, a doctor from Fudan University who died of cancer, wrote an article entitled “Why did I get cancer? an article about her life habits such as overeating, staying up late and working overtime frequently, which caused many people to discuss and worry. In the past decades, a large number of studies have clarified the risk factors associated with cancer incidence and death, including genetic factors and environmental factors. Among them, tobacco, environmental pollution, occupational safety, food safety and proper nutrition are closely related to life. Qiao Youlin’s team at the Institute of Epidemiology, Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer, conducted an attribution analysis of cancer in the Chinese population. This latest authoritative study found that the behavioral and environmental risk factors associated with cancer mainly include chronic infections, smoking, and alcohol consumption. The study concluded that approximately 60 percent of cancers in the Chinese population are avoidable. “Of the overall cancer deaths in China, 65.9 percent among men and 42.8 percent among women are preventable and avoidable, with an average of about 60 percent.” Qiao Youlin said the data used for the study came from the National Cancer Registry database, a result that is about 20 percent higher than in both low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries, showing that we pay too little attention to cancer prevention. Chen Wanqing said that 85 to 90 percent of lung cancers are related to smoking, and the process of smoking can produce more than 40 carcinogenic substances that can increase the incidence of lung, oral cavity, larynx, trachea, pancreatic, stomach, cervical and bladder cancers. Although the smoking rate of our population has decreased, the burden of cancer caused by smoking will increase in the future because there is a lag in cancer incidence. In addition, 20% of cancer deaths in China are related to diet, nutrition and physical activity. Among them, inadequate fruit intake can cause 13.0% of cancer deaths. Inadequate intake of vegetables was associated with 3.6% of cancer deaths. Inadequate fruit and vegetable intake can cause 14% of deaths from gastrointestinal cancers. About 4.4% of cancer deaths in the Chinese population were caused by alcohol consumption, including 6.7% in men and 0.4% in women. The study by Qiao Youlin’s team concluded that cancer is the result of a combination of multiple risk factors and that cancer deaths caused by environmental pollution may currently be underestimated. Since most residents in China use biomass fuels such as coal and wood for cooking and heating, and indoor and outdoor air pollution is serious, cancer deaths caused by these environmental pollutions cannot be accurately estimated yet. Experts believe that the high incidence of cancer in China in recent years is the combined result of the impact of social development on the environment, population structure and lifestyle over the past decades. Under the influence of current poor lifestyle habits, the proportion of cancer deaths attributed to overweight and obesity will increase twofold in the next 15 years, and the proportion of cancer deaths caused by alcohol consumption will also increase. The study recommends that government-led, community-wide and multi-sectoral coordinated strategies and measures for integrated cancer prevention and treatment should be implemented as soon as possible to reduce the risk of cancer in China.