Can cancer be prevented?

Half of all cancers can be preventedMany people believe that getting cancer is purely down to genes, fate or bad luck. But through scientific research, we know that our risk actually depends on a combination of our genes, our environment and aspects of our lives, many of which we can control.

In the UK, one in three people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. Every year, over 285,000 people are diagnosed with the disease, about the population of a city like Nottingham or Belfast.

But experts estimate that up to half of these cases could be prevented by lifestyle changes, such as:

Is prevention a guarantee?

Preventing cancer doesn’t work in the same way as preventing infectious diseases by injecting vaccines.

‘Healthy living’ is not a cast-iron guarantee against cancer. Instead, it "reduces the risk" of the disease - it heavily stacks the odds of avoiding it in our favour.

For example, we know that it’s possible for a heavy smoker to live a cancer-free life, while someone who never touches cigarettes could develop lung cancer. But if we look at the UK as a whole, we can clearly see that non-smokers are far less likely to develop cancer than smokers.

In the same way, careful drivers cannot guarantee that they will never get into an accident due to events beyond their control, but they are much less likely to do so than reckless ones.

Can lifestyle changes really make a difference?

Yes, and not just for cancer. In 2008, a large study worked out how a combination of four healthy behaviours would affect your health. These were: not smoking; keeping active; moderating how much alcohol you drink; and eating five daily portions of fruit and vegetables.

People who ticked all four healthy boxes gained an average of 14 years of life compared to people who did not do any of them. By the end of the study, they were less likely to have died from cancer or heart disease.

Isn’t it better to search for a cure?

For many people, cancer research is all about the hunt for ‘a cure’. More people are surviving cancer than ever before and better treatments will undoubtedly save more lives in the future.

But they are one part of the bigger picture. Investigating the causes of different types of cancer could play an equally important role in stopping them from developing in the first place.

Prevention plays an important part in the fight against cancer because:

  • We will never discover a single cure for cancer because it is actually a group of over 200 diseases, most of which will need many different treatments.
  • Many types of cancer that are difficult to detect early and treat effectively can be largely prevented. These include lung cancer and oesophageal cancer.
  • Many common cancers are mostly preventable including lung, bowel and mouth cancers, and malignant melanoma.
  • Even though survival rates for many cancers are high, living with cancer and going through treatment can be a difficult experience.
  • Cancer is mostly a disease of later life, and more people in the UK are living to an older age. This means that the number of cancer cases will rise unless more can be prevented.

How does cancer prevention work?

While a small proportion of cancers are caused by inherited genes, the vast majority are triggered by DNA damage that accumulates during a person’s lifetime. DNA is a molecular instruction manual that tells our cells what to do.

Damaged DNA can make cells grow and divide uncontrollably - the hallmark of all cancers.

In many cases, healthy living reduces the risk of cancer by reducing our exposure to things that damage DNA. These include:

Making healthy choices, such as keeping a healthy body weight, can also reduce the levels of molecules that make our cells divide faster than normal, such as the hormone oestrogen.

 

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