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What Causes Cancer?
The Impact of Risk Factors
Other Risk Factors
There are many other factors that affect a person's chances of developing cancer. The most important ones are listed below.

Age
Age is an important risk factor for cancer.

This is because the longer we live, the greater the number of potentially cancer-causing mutations in our DNA.

This is why the disease is so much more common in older people - nearly two-thirds of all cases of cancer diagnosed will occur in people over 65 years old.

Nobody can stop the aging clock, but people can take steps to care for themselves as they become older.

 
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Ethnicity
Cancer also impacts people differently according to their ethnicity. For example, African American men are twice as likely to have prostate cancer compared with Caucasian men. In addition, socioeconomic factors, including access to care, play a significant role in how some minorities are affected by cancer.
 
Viruses & Bacteria
Infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria contribute to the development of some cancers.
 
  • The human papillomavirus (HPV), - specific strains cause cervical cancer


  • Hepatitis B and C,
    - liver cancer


  • Epstein Barr Virus, and others are associated with different types of cancer (often lymphoma)
 
 

CISN Tips

Protections against some of these conditions include:

  • Practice safe sex
  • Honest communication with sexual partners.
 
Smoking
“ Quitting is important for anyone who uses tobacco - even people who have used it for many years.”
 

The risk of cancer for people who quit is lower than the risk for people who continue to use tobacco. (But the risk of cancer is generally lowest among those who never used tobacco.)

Also, for people who have already had cancer, quitting may reduce the chance of getting another cancer.
 
 
CISN Tip:
  • Use the many resources listed below to help you stop using tobacco:
  1. Staff at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Smoking Quitline (1-877-44U-QUIT) and at LiveHelp (click on "Need Help?" at: http://www.cancer.gov) can talk with you about ways to quit smoking and about groups that help smokers who want to quit. Groups may offer counseling in person or by telephone.

  2. A Federal Government Web site, http://www.smokefree.gov, has an online guide to quitting smoking and a list of other resources.


  3. Doctors and dentists can help their patients find local programs or trained professionals who help people stop using tobacco.


  4. Doctors and dentists can suggest medicine or nicotine replacement therapy, such as a pill, patch, gum, lozenge, nasal spray, or inhaler.

Hormones
Hormone replacement therapy has been shown to increase risk for breast cancer.

CISN Summary

Cancer is complex.

There are many processes that occur inside the body which are not well understood.

Cancer often develops from a combination of each person’s internal genetic material (DNA) and external exposures.

What causes cancer in one person may not cause cancer in another.
Take two people exposed to the same carcinogen:

  • The first person develops cellular errors that they cannot self-repair. The cells with errors continue to grow and divide. This mass of tissue then forms a tumor.
  • The second person develops cellular errors that they can self-repair. The cells that had errors are then repaired and healthy again.

As you can see, each person reacts differently.
 
CISN Tip:

Know your family history - especially that of your Mom, Dad, siblings and grandparents.

The important thing to remember is that we can only control how we live our own life. Some exposures are beyond our ability to control.

So, eat well, exercise, avoid known carcinogens and enjoy your life.
 
 
 
 
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