More than 50 percent cancers can be prevented

A recent study revealed that more than of all cancer is preventable. The only thing needed is to proper knowledge of information to the society to act upon.

A team of researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, have marked the obstructions in front of making a huge impression in the cancer burden in the US and as well as across the world.

"We actually have an enormous amount of data about the causes and preventability of cancer," said epidemiologist Graham A. Colditz, at the Washington School of Medicine, the journal Science Translational Medicine reported.

As per Colditz and his co-authors, the major factors causing cancer includes lifestyle of people, from consumption of tobacco to diet and exercise, said a Washington university statement.

According to a data revealed by researchers it is observed that the specific cause of one third of total cancer cases in US is smoking. However, 20 percent is accounts due to excess body weight and obesity.

But if we leave the aspect of individual habits, the structure of the society which includes medical research funding to building design and food subsidies also influences the burden of cancer to a great extent and be changed in order to reduce it.

The major obstacle faced by them in the implementation of cancer prevention programme broadly is: Skepticism that cancer can be prevented.
75 percent cases of lung cancer in US can be prevented only by eradicating cigarette smoking.

Benefits of prevention may be underestimated in a short-term focus of cancer research as they take several years to complete, and research funding often spans five years or less.

Implementing strategies such as vaccination against cancer-causing viruses, such as the human papilloma virus that causes cervical cancer, were quite effective in the early stage of young people before they start sex.

Moreover, the cancer based treatments are mainly confined to single organ while behavioural changes can reduce cancer and death rates from many other chronic diseases too.

The health experts should take the moral responsibility to make the people aware of the risk factors even though they are unaware of the biological mechanism by which they cause cancer.

Tobacco policy and government subsidies are not as effective as it should be to discourage unhealthy behavior. In addition to that, in some cases the accessibility of unhealthy options are quite easy, especially in low-income communities.

-With inputs from IANS.

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