151 adopting a healthy lifestyle could prevent a huge number of cancer cases and possibly save tens of thousands of lives in the us according to a study published today in the journal of the american medical association researchers from massachusetts general hospital and harvard medical school looked at 89571 caucasian women and 46399 caucasian men enrolled in two ongoing cohorts to see how much a healthy lifestyle could reduce cancer risk of the people studied 16531 women and 11731 men had a healthy lifestyle pattern and were determined to be low risk these healthy patterns included moderate or no drinking a bmi between 185 and 275 weekly physical activity that included at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity and either never having smoked or currently not being a smoker the authors then studied cancer rates among the high and lowrisk groups they found that overall 20 percent to 40 percent of carcinoma cases and about half of carcinoma deaths can be potentially prevented through lifestyle modification carcinomas form in the lining of certain tissues or organs and is the most common form of cancer the authors clarify that more study needs to be done to ensure these findings translate to other ethnic groups these findings reinforce the predominate importance of lifestyle factors in determining cancer risk therefore primary prevention should remain a priority for cancer control the authors concluded in the study fiancee of nfl star dies of ovarian cancer at 26 zika virus outbreak us olympic committee will not stop athletes from going to brazil dr ehsan malek a hematologist and oncologist at university hospitals seidman cancer center in cleveland said this can help the medical community understand cancer risk and how to hopefully prevent future cases we didnt know what portion of cancer is caused by environmental cancer and opposed to the gene this study highlights the importance of lifestyle change said malek who was not involved in this study we have a lot to do we have the potential to change the prospect of cancer in the us studies like this can help health officials allocate resources to encourage healthier lifestyles and prevent future cancer cases malek said noting that despite new advancements in treatment these medications can incur a high cost we have had a tremendously amount of success and prolonged survival of cancer patients malek said however the cost of cancer treatment stays very high cancer is the first reason for bankruptcy in this country he pointed out that currently officials have estimated that every 1 spent on prevention may translate to 10 saved on treatment we have no other option we have to work on prevention more than treatment based on costbenefit issues malek said a slight change can translate to huge reduction of risk