Prevent cancer, change your lifestyle

NST: KUALA LUMPUR: A diet high in processed foods and a sedentary lifestyle are among the main causes for the increase in cancer in this region.
As such, a change in lifestyle could well save your life.
"We estimate that as much as 70 per cent of cancers can be prevented by lifestyle changes. That would then allow health providers to concentrate on the remaining 30 per cent," said renowned cancer researcher Professor Sir David Lane.
The lifestyle changes, he said, could be as simple as quitting smoking, eating more fresh fruits and vegetables and exercising regularly.
He said the prevalence of cancer had little to do with race or genetics but more with the nature of one’s lifestyle.
"People are eating less fresh foods as it is easier to just pop a processed meal into the microwave, and they are too busy to exercise. Such lifestyles have shown an increase in cancers such as colorectal and breast cancer.
"If you can avoid the worst (aspects) of the Western lifestyle (such as frequently eating fast foods and highly processed foods), we can prevent or at least reduce our chances of getting cancer."
However, it’s not all gloom and doom as there are some encouraging signs.
"Many countries are seeing an actual decline in deaths from breast cancer and this is really attributed to new drugs and new screening methods.
"Sometimes, we get distracted by all this research and we forget how much we can do to prevent it by making some simple lifestyle changes," said Lane, who is the executive director of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology Singapore.
"For example, smoking has killed so many people. We estimate a hundred million people have died because of tobacco. It is something we can change. Tobacco alone accounts for about 30 per cent of cancers. We also know that diet plays an important part as can be seen by the changes in the types of cancers people are getting over the years."
Lane said certain infections that could lead to cancer, such as hepatitis B and human papillomavirus, the sexually transmitted virus that causes most cases of cervical cancer, may be prevented with vaccines.
Cervical cancer, which kills 250,000 women each year, is going to be eliminated by the successful introduction of the vaccine Cervarix. Also, research was being done to find cures for other cancers, especially breast cancer.
"It’s a very exciting time to be a cancer researcher. But the message I would like to convey is that this is something that society has to do together. We can’t just rely on the scientists in their laboratories to cure cancer. That’s not going to happen.
"We have to deal with this disease together — the way the public responds to health messages, the way doctors encourage their patients to look after their own health, and the way scientists develop better ways to screen for cancer."
He also stressed the need for patients diagnosed with cancer to get quality information of the disease from reliable sources as they could be easily misled by poor information or in accurate stories.
Lane, who has been active in cancer research for 28 years, is internationally recognised for his original discovery of the p53 protein, a human tumour suppressor gene.
He is in Malaysia at the invitation of the Academy of Sciences to give talks to cancer researchers and doctors.
He will also deliver a talk on "Curing Cancer" to the public at Hotel Singgahsana in Petaling Jaya today.