• Anne Grundy, Abbey E Poirier, Farah Khandwala, Xin Grevers, Christine M Friedenreich, and Darren R Brenner.
• Affiliations: Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research (Grundy, Poirier, Khandwala, Grevers, Friedenreich, Brenner), CancerControl Alberta, Alberta Health Services, Edmonton, Alta.; Department of Oncology (Friedenreich, Brenner) and Department of Community Health Sciences (Friedenreich, Brenner), Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta.
• CMAJ Open. 2017 Jul 7; 5 (3): E540-E545.

BackgroundEstimates of the proportion of cancer cases that can be attributed to modifiable risk factors are not available for Canada and, more specifically, Alberta. The purpose of this study was to estimate the total proportion of cancer cases in Alberta in 2012 that could be attributed to a set of 24 modifiable lifestyle and environmental risk factors.MethodsWe estimated summary population attributable risk estimates for 24 risk factors (smoking [both passive and active], overweight and obesity, inadequate physical activity, diet [inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption, inadequate fibre intake, excess red and processed meat consumption, salt consumption, inadequate calcium and vitamin D intake], alcohol, hormones [oral contraceptives and hormone therapy], infections [Epstein-Barr virus, hepatitis B and C viruses, human papillomavirus, Helicobacter pylori], air pollution, natural and artificial ultraviolet radiation, radon and water disinfection by-products) by combining population attributable risk estimates for each of the 24 factors that had been previously estimated. To account for the possibility that individual cancer cases were the result of a combination of multiple risk factors, we subtracted the population attributable risk for the first factor from 100% and then applied the population attributable risk for the second factor to the remaining proportion that was not attributable to the first factor. We repeated this process in sequential order for all relevant exposures.ResultsOverall, an estimated 40.8% of cancer cases in Alberta in 2012 were attributable to modifiable lifestyle and environmental risk factors. The largest proportion of cancers were estimated to be attributable to tobacco smoking, physical inactivity and excess body weight. The summary population attributable risk estimate was slightly higher among women (42.4%) than among men (38.7%).InterpretationAbout 41% of cancer cases in Alberta may be attributable to known modifiable lifestyle and environmental risk factors. Reducing the prevalence of these factors in the Alberta population has the potential to substantially reduce the provincial cancer burden.Copyright 2017, Joule Inc. or its licensors.

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