THREE KEY FACTS In 2019, 40% of new cancer diagnoses in adults aged 30 years and older in the US were due to modifiable risk. The greatest contributor to those new diagnoses was cigarette smoking. While we commonly associate alcohol with cancers of the oral cavity or esophagus, by far the greatest number of diagnoses attributed to alcohol consumption was breast cancer.
Mikkael A. Sekeres, MD, is the chief of the division of hematology and professor of medicine at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami. He is author of the books When Blood Breaks Down: Life Lessons from Leukemia and Drugs and the FDA: Safety, Efficacy, and the Public’s Trust .
OPINION My family history of cancer is impressive, and not in a good way..