Nearly half of cancer deaths among U.S. adults attributable to modifiable risk factors
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
About 40% of cancer cases and nearly half of cancer deaths among U.S. adults aged 30 years or older can be attributable to modifiable risk factors, according to a study led by American Cancer Society researchers.
The leading risk factor — cigarette smoking — contributed to nearly one in five cancer cases and nearly three in 10 cancer deaths, findings showed.
“Despite considerable declines in smoking prevalence during the past few decades, the number of lung cancer deaths attributable to cigarette smoking in the United States is alarming,” lead author Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, senior scientific director for cancer disparity research at American Cancer Society, said in a press release. “This finding underscores the importance of implementing comprehensive tobacco control policies in each state to promote smoking cessation, as well as heightened efforts to increase screening for early detection of lung cancer, when treatment could be more effective.”
Other modifiable risk factors that contributed to cancer development and mortality included excess body weight, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, diet and infections.
“Interventions to help maintain healthy body weight and diet can also substantially reduce the number of cancer cases and deaths in the country, especially given the increasing incidence of several cancer types associated with excess body weight — particularly in younger individuals,” Islami said.
Islami and colleagues used relative risk and cancer occurrence data to estimate the number and proportion of invasive cancer cases and deaths attributable to modifiable risk factors among U.S. adults who were aged 30 years or older in 2019. Their analysis accounted for 30 cancer types but excluded nonmelanoma skin cancers.
The analyzed risk factors included cigarette smoking, second-hand smoke, excess body weight, alcohol consumption, low consumption of fruits/vegetables and dietary fiber/calcium, consumption of processed or red meat, ultraviolet radiation exposure, physical inactivity and seven types of carcinogenic infections, including HPV, HIV, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus.
Results showed 40% of the selected incident cancers (713,340 of 1.78 million) and 44% of cancer deaths (262,120 of 595,737) among U.S. adults aged 30 years or older could be attributable to the evaluated risk factors.
The analysis identified cigarette smoking as the top risk factor, contributing to 19.3% of cancer cases and 28.5% of cancer deaths.
Other leading risk factors included excess body weight — which contributed to 7.6% of cancer cases and 7.3% of cancer deaths — and alcohol consumption, which contributed to 5.4% of cancer cases and 4.1% of cancer deaths. UV radiation exposure and physical inactivity rounded out the top five risk factors.
Potentially modifiable risk factors contributed to more than half of cases and deaths for 19 of the 30 cancer types evaluated.
Cancer types with the highest number of cases attributable to potentially modifiable risk factors included lung cancer (201,660), female breast cancer (83,840), melanoma (82,710) and colorectal cancer (78,440).
Cancer types with the highest number of deaths attributable to these risk factors included lung cancer (122,740), colorectal cancer (25,800), liver cancer (14,720) and esophageal cancer (13,600).
“These findings show there is a continued need to increase equitable access to preventive health care and awareness about preventive measures. Effective vaccines are available for hepatitis B virus, [which] causes liver cancer, and HPV, which can cause several cancer types, including cervical, other anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers,” study senior author Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PhD, senior vice president for surveillance and health equity science at American Cancer Society, said in the release. “Vaccination at the recommended time can substantially reduce the risk [for] chronic infection, and consequently, cancers associated with these viruses. HPV vaccination uptake in the United State is suboptimal.”
References:
- American Cancer Society. New study finds 40 percent of cancer cases and almost half of all deaths in the U.S. linked to modifiable risk factor (press release). Published July 11, 2024. Accessed July 11, 2024.
- Islami F, et al. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024;doi:10.3322/caac.21858.
Collapse
Islami F, et al. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024;doi:10.3322/caac.21858.
Read more about
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts