A healthy lifestyle reduces the risk of colon cancer - regardless of the genetic risk profile
The risk of developing bowel cancer depends, among other things, on lifestyle. Scientists from the German Cancer Research Center were able to show that everyone can reduce their personal risk of colon cancer by combining as many of five healthy lifestyles as possible: non-smoking, low alcohol consumption, a healthy diet, sufficient physical activity and normal body weight. This applies regardless of the genetic risk of bowel cancer. Even those who have a slightly increased risk due to genetic factors can reduce their risk by following a healthy lifestyle.
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Colorectal cancer is currently the third most common tumor among men and the second most common among women in Germany. "Among other things, nutritional and lifestyle habits are responsible for this," explains Michael Hoffmeister from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). "But everyone can reduce their risk of colon cancer by taking care to lead a healthy lifestyle.
This is impressively demonstrated by a study of more than 4000 bowel cancer patients and 3000 healthy control subjects. Hoffmeister and his colleagues from the DKFZ analysed the effects of five lifestyle factors that can be influenced: smoking or non-smoking, high or low alcohol consumption, unhealthy or healthy nutrition, little or a lot of physical activity and overweight or normal weight.
"The more healthy lifestyle factors the participants combined, the lower was their risk of developing bowel cancer," reports Hoffmeister. Thus for example participants, who did not smoke, adhered to a healthy diet, and were physically active, had already a lower intestine cancer risk than participants, who stuck with none of the five life-style factors to the healthy variant. Those who cultivated a consistently healthy lifestyle had the lowest risk of colon cancer.
The five lifestyle factors proved to be of about equal importance in colorectal cancer prevention. "It played a subordinate role whether it was the non-smoking, healthy diet or physical activity that was heeded. With all variants, the study participants reduced their risk of colorectal cancer," adds Prudence Carr, the first author of the study. The relationship between lifestyle and colorectal cancer risk was also independent of the study participants' family history. It did not matter whether they had had a colonoscopy in the past or not.
"The recommendation to live a healthy lifestyle applies to everyone, regardless of their genetic risk of colon cancer. And, of course, not only the risk of colon cancer is reduced by a healthier lifestyle. At the same time, the risk of cardiovascular diseases and many other diseases dicreases," emphasises Hoffmeister.
In further studies, the DKFZ scientists would now like to investigate to what extent the risk of colon cancer can be reduced by several preventive measures - for example through a healthier lifestyle and the performance of preventive examinations - despite a slightly increased genetic risk.
Despite major advances in prevention and early detection, colorectal cancer remains one of the most common cancers worldwide. According to estimates by the German epidemiological cancer registries and the Centre for Cancer Registry Data at the Robert Koch Institute, 33,000 men and 26,000 women in Germany will develop colorectal cancer in 2018.
Prudence R. Carr, Korbinian Weigl, Lina Jansen, Viola Walter, Vanessa Erben, Jenny Chang-Claude, Hermann Brenner, Michael Hoffmeister. Healthy Lifestyle Factors Associated With Lower Risk of Colorectal Cancer Irrespective of Genetic Risk. Gastroenterology 2018, DOI: 10.1053/y.gastro.2018.08.044
With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) is Germany’s largest biomedical research institute. DKFZ scientists identify cancer risk factors, investigate how cancer progresses and develop new cancer prevention strategies. They are also developing new methods to diagnose tumors more precisely and treat cancer patients more successfully. The DKFZ's Cancer Information Service (KID) provides patients, interested citizens and experts with individual answers to questions relating to cancer.
To transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the prognosis of cancer patients, the DKFZ cooperates with excellent research institutions and university hospitals throughout Germany:
The DKFZ is 90 percent financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg. The DKFZ is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.
