Cancer is a collection of some 200 diseases that have one feature in common: Healthy cells run amok. Prevailing wisdom holds that genes play a major role. If your parent or sibling has had cancer, you're marked.
Or, maybe not.
This summer, the medical community learned the findings from the largest study ever conducted to determine the relative impact of genes and the environment on cancer. Surprisingly, what you eat, where you live, your occupation, and certain bad habits, including smoking and overeating, matter more than a family history of cancer.
The research behind this shocker comes from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. It organized a study of 89,576 twins in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Cancer researchers like to study twins because of their genetic similarities. Using health records, they selected families in which one twin developed cancer, and then they looked at what happened to the other.
Genes, it appears, really aren't destiny. What matters more is smoking cigarettes, a poor diet, lack of exercise, and exposure to radiation and pollution and cancer-causing chemicals. The most striking finding is that an identical twin who avoided these risks—in essence, took care of himself—had about a 90 percent chance of not getting the same cancer as his twin. The study, prepared by Paul Lichtenstein of the Karolinska Institute, was recently published in the New England Journal Of Medicine.
The extent to which specific cancers could be reduced varies, says Lichtenstein. Some experts say a comprehensive control effort that includes tighter restrictions on releases of industrial chemicals into the air, water and workplace could demote cancers from top killers to rare diseases. The solution to the mystery of cancer isn't a pill, but rather, prevention.
Or, maybe not.
This summer, the medical community learned the findings from the largest study ever conducted to determine the relative impact of genes and the environment on cancer. Surprisingly, what you eat, where you live, your occupation, and certain bad habits, including smoking and overeating, matter more than a family history of cancer.
The research behind this shocker comes from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. It organized a study of 89,576 twins in Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Cancer researchers like to study twins because of their genetic similarities. Using health records, they selected families in which one twin developed cancer, and then they looked at what happened to the other.
Genes, it appears, really aren't destiny. What matters more is smoking cigarettes, a poor diet, lack of exercise, and exposure to radiation and pollution and cancer-causing chemicals. The most striking finding is that an identical twin who avoided these risks—in essence, took care of himself—had about a 90 percent chance of not getting the same cancer as his twin. The study, prepared by Paul Lichtenstein of the Karolinska Institute, was recently published in the New England Journal Of Medicine.
The extent to which specific cancers could be reduced varies, says Lichtenstein. Some experts say a comprehensive control effort that includes tighter restrictions on releases of industrial chemicals into the air, water and workplace could demote cancers from top killers to rare diseases. The solution to the mystery of cancer isn't a pill, but rather, prevention.
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