International researchers assume that almost every second cancer death worldwide is due to influences that are avoidable. Many of the risk factors are well known.
Seattle/London – According to a study, almost every second cancer death worldwide is due to avoidable factors such as an unhealthy lifestyle.
Smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity led the list of 34 risk factors, writes an international research team in the journal The Lancet. The team analyzed data from about 10 million people who died from 23 different types of cancer in 2019. External risk factors were involved in 4.45 million deaths – 44.4 percent.
“This study shows that the burden of cancer remains an important public health challenge that is growing in global importance,” said co-author Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle in a statement from the journal. The results of the study could help policy makers and researchers identify risk factors that can prevent both morbidity and death from cancer. dpa
