A study, suggesting that two thirds of cancers are the result of chance, is strongly criticized by the WHO.
Nearly 15 days after the start of the controversy, the WHO finally reacted. the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), an agency of the World Health Organization (WHO) specialized in cancer, expressed its “deep disagreement with the conclusion” of a study published in Science January 2. According to this article, in 65% of cases, bad luck is the main explanation for the outbreak of cancer, with cancer cells arising from a random mutation of the stem cells.
This report therefore explained that lifestyles – such as tobacco consumption, obesity, lack of physical exercise – or heredity was responsible for only a third of cancers. What does not approve at all the Circ, which points out “a serious contradiction with the vast field of epidemiological data, as well as a certain number of methodological limits and biases in the analysis presented in the report”, in a statement released on January 13.
“We already knew that for an individual, there is a part of chance in the risk of developing this or that cancer, but this has little to do with the level of cancer risk in a population”, explains Dr. Christopher Wild, director of IARC. “To conclude that bad luck is the main cause of cancer would be misleading and may seriously hamper efforts to identify the causes of the disease and prevent it effectively”
“The majority of the most common cancers that occur in the world are strongly linked to environmental exposures and lifestyle. Notable among others is the decrease in the rates of lung cancer and other cancers associated with tobacco after reduction in smoking, and the decrease in hepatocellular carcinoma in people vaccinated against the hepatitis B virus. our knowledge of etiology is simply “bad luck”, ”says Circ.
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