Georgia: The two most significant risk factors linked to a relative and absolute five-year chance of acquiring any cancer are older age and smoking, according to a recent to study conducted by scientists at the American Cancer Society (ACS).
The findings also demonstrate that in addition to age and smoking history, clinicians should consider excess body fatness, family history of any cancer, and several other factors that may help patients determine if they may benefit from enhanced cancer screening or prevention interventions.
"Single cancer type-specific screening recommendations are based on risk factors for that specific type of cancer," said Dr. Alpa Patel, senior Vice President, American Cancer Society.
"Our findings are encouraging as we are working to define subgroups in the general population who could benefit from enhanced cancer screening and prevention," said Dr. Patel
For this study, researchers analyzed two ACS prospective cohort studies, Cancer Prevention Study-II Nutrition Cohort and Cancer Prevention Study-3 to identify the risk factors associated with greater than two-per cent absolute risk of any cancer within five years. The authors studied 429,991 participants in the United States with no prior personal history of cancer and followed for cancer for up to five years. (ANI)