Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota

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Masonic Cancer Center of the University of Minnesota

Cancer Prevention Overview

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What is Prevention?

Cancer prevention is action taken to lower the chance of getting cancer. By preventing cancer, the number of new cases of cancer in a group or population is lowered. Hopefully, this will lower the number of deaths caused by cancer.

Cancer is not a single disease but a group of related diseases. Many things in our genes, our lifestyle, and the environment around us may increase or decrease our risk of getting cancer.

Scientists are studying many different ways to help prevent cancer, including the following:

  • Ways to avoid or control things known to cause cancer.
  • Changes in diet and lifestyle.
  • Finding precancerous conditions early. Precancerous conditions are conditions that may become cancer.
  • Chemoprevention (medicines to treat a precancerous condition or to keep cancer from starting).

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Carcinogenesis

Carcinogenesis is the process in which normal cells turn into cancer cells.

Carcinogenesis is the series of steps that take place as a normal cell becomes a cancer cell. Cells are the smallest units of the body and they make up the body's tissues. Each cell contains genes that guide the way the body grows, develops, and repairs itself. There are many genes that control whether a cell lives or dies, divides (multiplies), or takes on special functions, such as becoming a nerve cell or a muscle cell.

Changes (mutations) in genes occur during carcinogenesis.

Changes (mutations) in genes can cause normal controls in cells to break down. When this happens, cells do not die when they should and new cells are produced when the body does not need them. The buildup of extra cells may cause a mass (tumor) to form.

Tumors can be benign or malignant (cancerous). Malignant tumor cells invade nearby tissues and spread to other parts of the body. Benign tumor cells do not invade nearby tissues or spread.

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Risk Factors

Scientists study risk factors and protective factors to find ways to prevent new cancers from starting. Anything that increases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer risk factor; anything that decreases your chance of developing cancer is called a cancer protective factor.

Some risk factors for cancer can be avoided, but many cannot. For example, both smoking and inheriting certain genes are risk factors for some types of cancer, but only smoking can be avoided. Risk factors that a person can control are called modifiable risk factors.

This summary reviews only the major cancer risk factors and protective factors that can be controlled or changed to reduce the risk of cancer. Risk factors that are not described in the summary include certain sexual behaviors, the use of estrogen, and being exposed to certain substances at work or to certain chemicals.

Factors That are Known to Increase the Risk of Cancer

Cigarette Smoking and Tobacco Use

Tobacco use is strongly linked to an increased risk for many kinds of cancer. Smoking cigarettes is the leading cause of the following types of cancer:

Not smoking or quitting smoking lowers the risk of getting cancer and dying from cancer. Scientists believe that cigarette smoking causes about 30% of all cancer deaths in the United States.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Infections

Certain viruses and bacteria are able to cause cancer. Viruses and other infection-causing agents cause more cases of cancer in the developing world (about 1 in 4 cases of cancer) than in developed nations (less than 1 in 10 cases of cancer). Examples of cancer-causing viruses and bacteria include:

Two vaccines to prevent infection by cancer-causing agents have already been developed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). One is a vaccine to prevent infection with hepatitis B virus. The other protects against infection with strains of human papillomavirus (HPV) that cause cervical cancer. Scientists continue to work on vaccines against infections that cause cancer.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Radiation

Being exposed to radiation is a known cause of cancer. There are two main types of radiation linked with an increased risk for cancer:

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Factors That May Affect the Risk of Cancer

Diet

The foods that you eat on a regular basis make up your diet. Diet is being studied as a risk factor for cancer. It is hard to study the effects of diet on cancer because a person's diet includes foods that may protect against cancer and foods that may increase the risk of cancer.

It is also hard for people who take part in the studies to keep track of what they eat over a long period of time. This may explain why studies have different results about how diet affects the risk of cancer.

Some studies show that fruits and nonstarchy vegetables may protect against cancers of the mouth, esophagus, and stomach. Fruits may also protect against lung cancer.

Some studies have shown that a diet high in fat, proteins, calories, and red meat increases the risk of colorectal cancer, but other studies have not shown this.

It is not known if a diet low in fat and high in fiber, fruits, and vegetables lowers the risk of colorectal cancer.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Alcohol

Studies have shown that drinking alcohol is linked to an increased risk of the following types of cancers:

Drinking alcohol may also increase the risk of liver cancer and female colorectal cancer.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Physical Activity

Studies show that people who are physically active have a lower risk of certain cancers than those who are not. It is not known if physical activity itself is the reason for this.

Studies show a strong link between physical activity and a lower risk of colorectal cancer. Some studies show that physical activity protects against postmenopausal breast cancer and endometrial cancer.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Obesity

Studies show that obesity is linked to a higher risk of the following types of cancer:

  • Postmenopausal breast cancer.
  • Colorectal cancer.
  • Endometrial cancer.
  • Esophageal cancer.
  • Kidney cancer.
  • Pancreatic cancer.

Some studies show that obesity is also a risk factor for cancer of the gallbladder.

Studies do not show that losing weight lowers the risk of cancers that have been linked to obesity.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

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Interventions That are Known to Lower Cancer Risk

An intervention is a treatment or action taken to prevent or treat disease, or improve health in other ways. Many studies are being done to find ways to keep cancer from starting or recurring (coming back).

Chemoprevention is being studied in patients who have a high risk of developing cancer.

Chemoprevention is the use of substances to lower the risk of cancer, or keep it from recurring. The substances may be natural or made in the laboratory. Some chemopreventive agents are tested in people who are at high risk for a certain type of cancer. The risk may be because of a precancerous condition, family history, or lifestyle factors.

Some chemoprevention studies have shown good results. For example, selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMS) such as tamoxifen or raloxifene have been shown to reduce the risk of breast cancer in women at high risk. Finasteride has been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

New ways to prevent cancer are being studied in clinical trials.

Chemoprevention agents that are being studied in clinical trials include COX-2 inhibitors. They are being studied for the prevention of colorectal and breast cancer.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

Clinical trials are taking place in many parts of the country. Check NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials Registry for cancer prevention trials (see also: clinical trials at the Masonic Cancer Center) that are now accepting patients.

See the NCI Web site for more information about cancer prevention.

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Interventions That Are Not Known to Lower Cancer Risk

Vitamin and dietary supplements have not been shown to prevent cancer.

An intervention is a treatment or action taken to prevent or treat disease, or improve health in other ways.

There is not enough proof that taking multivitamin and mineral supplements or single vitamins or minerals can prevent cancer. The following vitamins and mineral supplements have been studied, but have not been shown to lower the risk of cancer:

The use of supplements to prevent cancer is still being studied.

See the following PDQ summaries for more information:

New ways to prevent cancer are being studied in clinical trials.

Clinical trials are taking place in many parts of the country. Check NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials Registry for cancer prevention trials (see also: clinical trials at the Masonic Cancer Center) that are now accepting patients.

See the NCI Web site for more information about cancer prevention.

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Changes to This Summary (08/31/2009)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Editorial changes were made to this summary.

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Questions or Comments About This Summary

If you have questions or comments about this summary, please send them to Cancer.gov through the Web site's Contact Form. We can respond only to email messages written in English.

2009-06-22

Date last modified: 2009-08-31

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