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Cancer

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Lifestyle Medicine

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Abstract

A number of lifestyle factors affect cancer risk and survival, including nutrition and eating patterns, overweight and obesity status, physical activity and sedentary behavior, and alcohol and tobacco use. More than 30 % of cancers are associated with diet. Public health guidelines recommend a plant-based diet for cancer prevention. Maintaining a healthy weight throughout life may be one of the most important ways to protect against cancer. Physical activity may protect against cancer in general, improve long-term health of cancer survivors, and possibly reduce the risk of cancer recurrence. Alcohol acts in various ways to increase cancer risk. A vast array of research findings show tobacco use in any form is associated with diseases of practically all organs in the human body, including multiple cancers. Inherited genetic variants, such as single nucleotide polymorphisms, may retard or enhance the carcinogenic effects of these exposures. Epigenetic processes may also influence the adverse or beneficial effects of lifestyle exposures.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body Mass Index

FDA:

Food and Drug Administration

IL-1:

Interleukin-1

IL-6:

Interleukin-6

PA:

Physical activity

SELECT:

Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial

SNP:

Singlenucleotide polymorphisms

TNF-α:

Tumor necrosis factor-α

WCRF/AICR:

World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research

WHEL:

Women’s Healthy Eating and Living

WINS:

Women’s Intervention Nutrition Study

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bethesda, MD, USA

    Elaine Trujillo

  2. NIH/National Cancer Institute/Division of Cancer Prevention/Chemopreventive Agent Development Research Group, NIH Clinical Center, 9609 Medical Center Drive, Bethesda, 20892, MD, USA

    Barbara K. Dunn

  3. Division of Cancer Prevention at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Bethesda, MD, USA

    Peter Greenwald

Authors
  1. Elaine Trujillo
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  2. Barbara K. Dunn
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  3. Peter Greenwald
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elaine Trujillo .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. New York, USA

    Jeffrey I. Mechanick MD

  2. Chicago, USA

    Robert F. Kushner MD

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Trujillo, E., Dunn, B., Greenwald, P. (2016). Cancer. In: Mechanick, J., Kushner, R. (eds) Lifestyle Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24687-1_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24687-1_24

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