Appendix A

Recommended ways to reduce your cancer risk

About 1 in 3 cancer deaths in the United States each year is related to diet, exercise, and overweight. Another 1 in 3 cancer deaths are due to exposure to tobacco.

If you are looking for ways to reduce your cancer risk, and reduce your risk of dying from cancer, there is scientific evidence to support certain methods. Even though this document is focused on learning about unproven methods, your American Cancer Society has looked at the science and made the recommendations listed here. These methods are proven to help reduce the number of cancer cases and cancer deaths in large groups of people.

American Cancer Society recommendations for individual choices about nutrition and physical activity

Get to and stay at a healthy weight throughout life.

• Balance your calorie intake with physical activity.
• Avoid excessive weight gain throughout life.
• Get to and stay at a healthy weight if you are overweight or obese.

Adopt a physically active lifestyle.

• Adults: Take part in at least 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity, beyond your usual activities, on 5 or more days of the week. 45 to 60 minutes of intentional physical activity on 5 or more days a week is even better.
• Children and adolescents: Take part in at least 60 minutes per day of moderate to vigorous physical activity at least 5 days a week.

(Moderate activities are those that require about as much effort as a brisk walk. Vigorous activities generally use large muscle groups. They raise your heart rate, speed up your breathing, and make you sweat.)

Eat a healthy diet, with an emphasis on plant sources.

• Choose foods and drinks in amounts that help you get to and stay at a healthy weight.
• Eat 5 or more servings of a variety of vegetables and fruits each day.
• Choose whole grains over processed (refined) grains.
• Limit your intake of processed meats (like deli meats, hot dogs, and bacon) and red meats.

If you drink alcoholic beverages, limit your intake.

• Limit your intake no more than 1 drink per day for women or 2 per day for men.

Avoid things that cause cancer

• Avoid smoking, second hand smoke, and all other forms of tobacco.
• Don't expose yourself to other known cancer causing agents (carcinogens). Learn more about chemicals or agents that you work with or use at home, and how to protect yourself. (See our document called Known and Probable Human Carcinogens to learn more.)
• Protect yourself from sunlight and other UV light sources (tanning beds and lamps).

Get the HPV vaccine if it will benefit you

• If you are female and between 11 and 18 years old, get the HPV vaccine series to reduce your risk of cancers caused by HPV infection. If you have daughters in this age range, talk to their pediatrician about the HPV vaccine.
• If you are a woman between 19 and 26 years old, talk with your doctor about whether the HPV vaccine might reduce your risk of HPV-related cancers.

Get tested for common cancers and pre-cancers

Use early detection methods that can find pre-cancerous changes in some parts of the body. Treating these pre-cancers can keep them from growing into cancer:

• Pap tests for women as recommended
• Colonoscopy, CT colonography, or sigmoidoscopy for people age 50 and over (or earlier if high risk)

For more on prevention and early detection, see our documents, Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Checklist for Men or Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Checklist for Women.) Even though some of these methods don't prevent cancer, early detection methods can help lower your chance of dying from cancer, and improve your chance of a cure. See the American Cancer Society Guidelines for the Early Detection of Cancer and see a doctor to discuss the best plan for early cancer detection in your case.