A groundbreaking global study revealed that nearly 40% of new cancer cases worldwide are potentially preventable, offering hope that millions of future diagnoses could be avoided through lifestyle changes and public health interventions.
The comprehensive research was published on Wednesday in Nature Medicine.
It analyzed dozens of cancer types across almost 200 countries and found that in 2022, roughly 7 million cancer diagnoses were linked to modifiable risk factors, those that can be changed, controlled or managed to reduce the likelihood of developing the disease.
The study represents one of the first investigations of its kind to examine preventable cancer cases on such a massive scale.
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Researchers examined global case data from 2022 for 36 different cancers across 185 countries, incorporating 30 well-established modifiable risk factors.
Overall, tobacco smoking emerged as the leading contributor to worldwide cancer cases, followed by infections and alcohol consumption.
In 2022, there were a total of 18.7 million new cancer cases worldwide. Roughly 38% — or 7.1 million — of these cases could be attributed to avoidable causes. Globally, tobacco smoking accounted for around 15% of preventable cases, followed by infections at 10% and alcohol consumption at 3%.
Lung, stomach and cervical cancers made up nearly half of all preventable cancer cases, highlighting specific areas where prevention efforts could have the greatest impact.
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Cancer continues to be a leading cause of illness and death worldwide, with cases expected to rise over the next few decades if current trends continue. Previous studies have estimated that around 44% of global cancer deaths can be attributed to avoidable or controllable causes.
However, estimates of preventability have mainly focused on the number of deaths rather than cases and have mostly investigated a single risk factor, according to study co-author Hanna Fink, a cancer epidemiologist at the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon, France.
The new research addresses this gap by providing a comprehensive view of preventable cancer cases across multiple risk factors and cancer types.
