Every second cancer death is due to an unhealthy lifestyle 

Created: 08/27/2022, 3:00 p.m

By: Judith Brown

Smoking, alcohol and obesity are risk factors involved in every second death from cancer.

However, they could be avoided.

After cardiovascular diseases, cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide.

However, as a recent study found out, almost every second cancer death can be traced back to avoidable factors in everyday life.

Most of the time it is an unhealthy lifestyle, with men being significantly more at risk than women.

Death: Every second cancer death is due to an unhealthy lifestyle

Avoidable behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity are involved in every second cancer death.

© CHROMORANGE/Martina Raedlein/IMAGO

For their study, published in the journal

, the researchers evaluated data from around ten million people.

They died of 23 different types of cancer in 2019.

The researchers found that 44.4 percent of deaths involved external risk factors.

The evaluation revealed a total of 34 risk factors, with smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity leading the list.

They belong to behavioral risks, while exposure to carcinogenic substances in certain occupations belongs to environmental and occupational risks.

The results of the study also showed that men are significantly more at risk of dying from cancer due to external risk factors.

Accordingly, these factors played a role in 50.6 percent and thus in more than half of the male deaths examined.

In contrast, this was only the case for 36.6 percent of the women.

In addition, according to the study, men lost four times as many years of life as women through the use of tobacco.

There were three times as many for alcohol consumption and occupational and environmental risks.

The researchers explained that men may be more likely to smoke and drink and be more likely to be exposed to carcinogens in their jobs.

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"This study shows that the burden of cancer remains an important public health challenge that is growing in global importance," said study leader Prof. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington in Seattle in a statement.

With the help of the study results, politicians and other scientists could more quickly identify risk factors that can be used to prevent diseases and deaths from cancer.

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