Frequently asked questions

• Why do scientists keep changing their minds about what is good or bad for us?
• Is it true you can live a healthy lifestyle and still develop cancer?
• Isn’t cancer all down to your genes?
• How important is lifestyle in cancer prevention?
• How do I know WCRF UK’s advice is right?
• At what stage of life should people start thinking about cancer prevention?
• How has WCRF UK made a difference?

Why do scientists keep changing their minds about what is good or bad for us?

If you read or listen to the media it can be easy to get the impression that scientists are constantly changing their minds about what increases and reduces cancer risk.

But this is because sometimes individual scientific studies that are not big enough to base conclusions on are reported in the press as scientific fact. Or sometimes scientists will find that chemicals react in a certain way in a laboratory but that is no guarantee the same result would happen in the human body.

This is the one of the reasons why it is easy to get confused about the links between cancer and lifestyle, even though there is actually widespread agreement among scientists about how people can reduce their risk.

In 2007 we published a landmark report that looked at all the evidence on cancer prevention and made 10 Recommendations for Cancer Prevention.

Following our Recommendations is a much better way of reducing your risk of cancer than making changes based on the latest newspaper headline. You can be confident that you are following the best advice on cancer prevention available anywhere in the world.

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Is it true you can live a healthy lifestyle and still develop cancer?

The evidence is clear that you can make a big difference to your risk of developing cancer by eating healthily, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight,but this is not a guarantee.

You could have a healthy lifestyle and still develop cancer, or you could have an unhealthy lifestyle and never be affected by it. But this does not change the fact that making healthy lifestyle choices can make a significant different in reducing your cancer risk, as well as the risk of other chronic diseases.

Scientists estimate that about a third of the most common cancers could be prevented by eating healthily, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight.

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Isn’t cancer all down to your genes?

No. Only a small proportion of cancers are caused by single “faulty” genes. It is now known that the risk of cancer is mainly affected by environmental factors, including smoking, weight, diet, physical activity and some industrial chemicals and pollutants.

The good news is that scientists estimate that about a third of cancers could be prevented through eating healthily, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight.

This means that people can reduce their risk of developing cancer by making healthy lifestyle changes.

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How important is lifestyle in cancer prevention?

Scientists estimate that about a third of cancer cases could be prevented by eating healthily, being physically active and maintaining a healthy weight.

This means there are roughly 90,000 preventable cases of cancer diagnosed in the UK every year. To give you an idea of how many cases this is, 90,000 people would fill Wembley Stadium.

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How do I know WCRF UK’s advice is right?

WCRF UK’s Recommendations for Cancer Prevention are based on the most comprehensive report ever published on the link between lifestyle and cancer risk.

It is important to point out, however, that we do not yet know everything there is to know about how we can prevent cancer. If we did, then there would be no more for research in this area. In fact, we still need your help to fund the research that can help us discover even more.

But what we can say is that our Recommendations are as near to the whole picture on cancer prevention as is possible, based on the research that has been done up to this point.

Because of this, people who follow our Recommendations for Cancer Prevention can be confident that they represent the best advice on reducing your risk of cancer that is currently available, anywhere in the world.

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At what stage of life should people start thinking about cancer prevention?

It is never too early or too late to make the kind of healthy lifestyle choices that can reduce cancer risk. The scientific research is increasingly showing that our cancer risk is affected by what we do throughout the course of our whole lives.

For example, being breastfed probably reduces a child’s chance of being overweight, which increases cancer risk, and scientists even believe that what happens to the baby in the womb can affect its risk of cancers later in life.

This means it is never too early to start thinking about cancer prevention which is why we fund a children’s education programme.  Getting children into healthy habits as early as possible can make a positive difference to their risk of developing cancer later in life.

Similarly, it's never too late to make the kind of healthy lifestyle choices that can reduce cancer risk.

Scientists believe that making healthy lifestyle changes can make a positive impact no matter how old you are. The best advice for older people is to eat healthy foods, maintain a healthy weight and be physically active for both cancer prevention and also risk of heart disease.

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How has WCRF UK made a difference?

Over the years WCRF UK has funded millions of pounds of scientific research that has helped us better understand how people can make lifestyle choices to reduce their risk of cancer.

We also have education programmes that interpret the latest scientific research into a language that is easy to understand and then get this message across to the general public.

Find out more about us.

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