Nine behavioral and environmental risk factors play a major role in global can...( ine risks caused 760000 cancer deaths;...)

In low- and middle-income regions the nine risks caused 1.67 million cancer deaths; and smoking, alcohol consumption and low fruit and vegetable intake were the leading risk factors for these deaths. Sexual transmission of human papillomavirus is the leading risk factor for cervical cancer in women in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where access to cervical screening is also limited.

Among low- and middle-income regions, Europe and Central Asia had the highest proportion of death from cancer from the nine risk factors studied; 39 percent of 825,000 cancer deaths in the low- and middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia were caused by these risks. The effects were even larger among men; one half of cancer deaths among men in the low- and middle-income countries of Europe and Central Asia were caused by these nine risks.

Majid Ezzati, senior author of the study and assistant professor of international health at HSPH, commented, "These results clearly show that many globally important types of cancer are preventable by changes in lifestyle behaviors and environmental interventions." He continued, "To win the war against cancer, we must focus not just on advances in bio-medical technologies, but also on technologies and policies that change the behaviors and environments that cause those cancers."

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Contact: Christina Roache
croache@hsph.harvard.edu
617-432-6052
Harvard School of Public Health
18-Nov-2005