Cancer is a preventable disease!

A very recent study was published in the Nature journal on the causes of cancer, especially the “modifiable” causes of cancer, being those you have control over or can change. This new study (Fink et al, 2026) suggests that while cancers are a leading cause of mortality and burden on personal and national health budgets, there are 30 modifiable factors which can greatly prevent or reduce the risks of cancer. As such, up to 30% of cancers in women, and over 57% of cancers in men are preventable!

Some of the modifiable factors to prevent cancer include smoking, alcohol intake, having a high body mass index (ie, being overweight), low physical activity, UV radiation, infections, exposure to various toxicities, and more.
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But the study didn’t even look at foods or diets that people eat, of nutrient deficiencies or excesses as modifiable risk factors! So the cancer prevention rates are actually very much higher than stated above!

One study in the past, entitled “Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes” (Anand et. al, 2008) looked at the cancer prevention rates in a different way, such as the percentage of cancers which may have a genetic cause compared to non-genetic or environmental and lifestyle (ie, modifiable) causes. This study showed that the largest modifiable factors for cancer development were your diet (30-35%), smoking (25-30%), infections (15-20%), and obesity (10-20%), but genetics only contributes a 5-10% risk to cancer development. Therefore 90-95% of cancers are driven by your modifiable choices! Hence in reality, 90-95% of cancers are preventable!

This information is important for prevention of cancers, but also in the treatment of cancers too!

When has a doctor or oncologist ever mentioned how you can reduce your risks of cancer, or improve your chances of recovery from cancer, by recommending dietary and lifestyle improvements which make up 95% of the causes (and treatments!) for cancer?! You can have all the surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatments that doctors recommend, but if you don’t make environmental changes to your diet and lifestyle, you can pretty much guarantee that the cancer will come back. Nobody wants that.
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I have detailed consultations with cancer patients, especially in the initial consultation, to ask a lot of questions to find all the root causes and factors for the cancer development and progression in each person. Then I recommend specific and personalised dietary, lifestyle, and other treatment recommendations. This gives the best possible outcomes for your cancer treatment.

See my website for more information and bookings.

Stay healthy!

References:
Anand, P,. Kunnumakkara, A,B., Sundaram, C., Harikumar, K.B., Tharakan, S.T., Lai, O.S., Sung, B., Aggarwal, B.B. (2008). Cancer is a preventable disease that requires major lifestyle changes. Pharmaceutical Research, 25 (9). DOI: 10.1007/s11095-008-9661-9.

Fink, H., Langselius, O., Vignat, J. Rumgay, H., Rehm, J., Martinez, R.X., Santero, M., Lopez-Perez, L., Inoue, M., Zeng, H., Shield, K., Morgan, E., Ilbawi. A., & Soerjomataram, I. (2026). Global and regional cancer burden attributable to modifiable risk factors to inform prevention. Nature Medicine. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04219-7