My family history of cancer is impressive, and not in a good way.
My mom has lung cancer, and both her brother and mother were diagnosed with leukemia. On my dad’s side of the family, his father had prostate cancer and mother had ovarian cancer. These are some of the reasons I decided to specialize in cancer when I became a doctor. While in medical school, I also decided that — as much as possible — I would avoid behaviors that could increase my own risk of developing cancer, given the number of people in my family who had the diagnosis. But it’s important to understand that not all cancers are associated with modifiable risk factors. A study from the American Cancer Society published in July estimated that, in 2019, 40 percent of new cancer diagnoses in adults aged 30 years and older in the United States were due to modifiable risk. In many cases, though, the risk of developing cancer can’t be reduced by changing our behavior: The diagnosis is more or less a random event.
