Overview
- In the Nature Medicine study using GLOBOCAN 2022 data, 7.1 million of 18.7 million cancer diagnoses were linked to 30 changeable factors, including nine infections.
- Smoking was the largest contributor at about 15% of new cases worldwide, followed by infections at roughly 10% and alcohol at about 3%.
- Preventable fractions differed by sex, accounting for an estimated 45.4% of cancers in men and 29.7% in women, or 4.3 million and 2.7 million cases respectively.
- Lung, stomach and cervical cancers together made up nearly half of the cases tied to these modifiable risks.
- Contributions varied by region, with infections leading in 141 countries, tobacco’s impact highest in Northern Europe and North America, and high BMI accounting for a larger share in North America than globally.