New Delhi, Feb 4 || Up to four in 10 or 7.1 million cancer cases worldwide could be prevented, according to a new global analysis from the World Health Organization (WHO) and its International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on Wednesday.
The study, released on World Cancer Day on February 4, identified tobacco as the leading preventable cause of cancer globally, responsible for 15 per cent of all new cancer cases.
It also found, for the first time, that nine cancer-causing infections are responsible for about 10 per cent of cancer cases.
Other reasons include alcohol, high body mass index, physical inactivity, air pollution, and ultraviolet radiation.
The analysis, based on data from 185 countries and 36 cancer types, estimated that 37 per cent of all new cancer cases in 2022, around 7.1 million cases, were linked to preventable causes.
Three cancer types - lung, stomach and cervical cancer- accounted for nearly half of all preventable cancer cases in both men and women, globally.