I have previously written about the best ways to reduce your risk of cancer, and a new study quantifies how modifiable risk factors, that is, behaviors that you can directly control, reduce the risks of many cancers.

There are no miracle methods to 100% prevent all cancers, despite the wild claims you see on the internet. Drinking an organic, gluten-free blueberry kale smoothie every day will not appreciably reduce your risk of cancer.

In fact, about ⅔ of all cancers are just random mutations in cells that eventually develop into cancers. You cannot do anything about it, and there are no modifiable risk factors that will reduce the risks of these cancers.

This post will examine the modifiable risk factors that reduce the risks of various cancers.

Modifiable risk factors that reduce the risk of cancers

In a paper published on 3 February 2026 in Nature Medicine, Isabelle Soerjomataram, MD, IARC Cancer Surveillance Branch, Lyon, France, and colleagues collected data from 2022, which showed that an estimated 37.8% of the 18.7 million cancers were attributable to 30 modifiable factors, 29.7% for women and 45.4% for men.

The researchers used GLOBOCAN data for 2022, which showed 20 million new cases of cancer worldwide and about 10 million deaths. Overall, 7.1 million cancers were attributable to modifiable risk factors, including 2.7 million of 9.2 million total cancers in women and 4.3 million of 9.6 million cancers in men.

Below are some of their key data:

• Lung, stomach, and cervical cancers accounted for almost half of all potentially preventable cancers.
• Rates of cancers associated with modifiable risk factors varied by geography, ranging as high as 38.2% in women and 57.2% in men.
• Smoking, infections, and alcohol consumption topped the list of modifiable risk factors, accounting for 28.5% of the worldwide cancer burden.
• Infections (including human papillomavirus, hepatitis B, and Helicobacter pylori) were the leading contributors in 141 countries. Infections accounted for the most new cancers in sub-Saharan Africa (30.3%), South-Central Asia (18.1%), and Southeast Asia (16.7%).
• In contrast, smoking was most prevalent in Northern Europe (12.5%), North America (12.2%), and Western Europe (10.6%).
• Cancers attributable to high BMI are higher in North America, with a proportion more than double the global rate (5.2% vs 2.4%), probably because high BMI is more prevalent there.

Here is the list of modifiable risk factors that impact cancers in order of risk:

• Tobacco smoking, along with second-hand smoke.
• Alcohol consumption
• Obesity (high BMI)
• Insufficient physical activity
• Smokeless tobacco and areca nut
• Suboptimal breastfeeding
• Air pollution
• Ultraviolet radiation
• Infection (nine agents)
• Occupational exposures (13 agents)

Summary

So, you should stop smoking, reduce alcohol consumption, get exercise, stop using smokeless tobacco and areca nut, breastfeed appropriately, avoid air pollution, stay out of tanning booths and use sunblock (or stay out of the sun), get your HPV and hepatitis B vaccines, and avoid occupational exposures.

These aren’t some crackpot, pseudoscientific, supernatural claim from an Instagram influencer. These people want you to buy their crazy supplements to prevent cancer. Or stop eating Fruit Loops.

I’m not saying that avoiding these 30 risk factors will be easy, but they are directly linked to a higher risk of various cancers. If you want to reduce your risk of cancer, ignore those social media charlatans, and listen to science — you can do this.

Citations

• Fink H, Langselius O, Vignat J, Rumgay H, Rehm J, Martinez RX, Santero M, Lopez-Perez L, Inoue M, Zeng H, Shield K, Morgan E, Ilbawi A, Soerjomataram I. Global and regional cancer burden attributable to modifiable risk factors to inform prevention. Nat Med. 2026 Feb 3. doi: 10.1038/s41591-026-04219-7. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 41634393.
• Tomasetti C, Vogelstein B. Cancer etiology. Variation in cancer risk among tissues can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions. Science. 2015 Jan 2;347(6217):78-81. doi: 10.1126/science.1260825. PMID: 25554788; PMCID: PMC4446723.

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