How Possible is It to Prevent Cancer?

Because breast cancer is just one of many cancers, because having had breast cancer doesn’t exempt us from other cancers, we need to take a look at what the experts are saying about prevention of all cancers.

Early this month, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation, “Cancer Prevention: What’s Working, What Isn’t and What’s Next,” given by a panel of experts from Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James). Designated as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute (NCI),  OSUCCC-James is one of only seven  centers, across the US  funded by NCI to conduct both phase I and phase II clinical trials.

The presentation covered several topic areas including foods we need to be eating to prevent cancer, the role of genetic studies in predicting who is at risk and how knowing that information can help to prevent getting cancer, and issues and concerns of long-term survivors. I will post on these areas in future blogs, drawing on information from the OSUCCC-James presentation.

I am limiting my sharing from the presentation, in this post, to a statistical overview on cancer in the US and the need for adopting risk-reducing behaviors known to prevent developing cancers

• 1.5 million people in the US will be diagnosed with cancer this year
• 1 out 0f two men will be diagnosed with cancer in his life time
• 1 out of 3 women will be diagnosed with cancer in her life time
• Every minute a person in the U. S. dies of cancer
• There are twelve million people alive today who have survived cancer in the US
• Over 50% cancer deaths in the US are caused by human behaviors such as smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, obesity, poor diet, and lack of physical activity
• Environmental causes account for 1-2% of cancers
• 5-10% of cancers are hereditary

Numbers don’t lie; they tell a story of too much cancer, over half of which, that can be prevented by eliminating known causes of cancer.

The experts presenting from OSUCCC-James were quite clear  that living a balanced life style that includes; a diet rich in foods that are known to reduce the risk of cancer, maintaining a healthy weight, a daily routine that includes exercise, abstaining from using tobacco products and limited alcohol consumption is the best means available to us for preventing cancer.

It is good to know that we have it withing our power to live a balanced life style. Hopefully that will help many of us from getting cancer. However, we need to always remember that there are exceptions.

There are those of us who have always lived a healthy, balanced life style and yet we got cancer. We may have no family history of  the cancer we have or have had. We are at a loss to explain it to ourselves or to others.

So what do we tell ourselves? Until the day scientists can tell us otherwise…causes unknown.

For more information about OSUCCC-James, go to www.cancer.osu.edu