A study published in the journal Cancer concluded that approximately 42 percent of cancer cases and 45 percent of cancer deaths in the United States are linked to lifestyle related risk factors including excess weight, poor diet and physical inactivity according to a study released last week. AICR estimates that nearly half of the most common US cancers could be prevented through these and other modifiable risk factors.

The potentially modifiable risks included cigarette-smoking, excess body weight, alcohol intake, consumption of red and processed meat, low consumption of fruits and vegetables and dietary calcium, physical inactivity, exposure to UV radiation, and specific infections. In a nutshell, these are the factors that are not inherited, and exposure to them is controllable.