As high schoolers, you might think “I’m too young to get cancer” or “that’s a problem for whenever I’m older”, as it is a common myth that cancer can only occur in people over a certain age. But in reality, 1 in 285 children in the United States will be diagnosed with cancer before the age of 20. And in adults, 1.9 million adults get diagnosed with cancer each year (National Cancer Institute, 1). Cancer is more common than you think; cancer is the leading cause of death in both children and adults. Since cancer is the leading cause of death in individuals in America, wouldn’t you think that people would want to learn how to prevent cancer? Yes, right? Well, no matter how pressing it might sound, you’d be surprised how many people overlook learning about something as life changing as cancer. This article is going to be a way to ensure that you are the most educated on cancer prevention strategies and make sure you don’t turn your head in ignorance when it comes to risks.
We know that cancer develops under the influence of external stimuli, however, on a cellular level, it is much more complex to try and understand why. If you didn’t know, cancer is caused by the uncontrolled division of cells and turns into what are known as tumors when there is gathering of those unwanted cells in a specific area. While we don’t know specifically what happens to specific cancers in a biological identity sense, we know that cancer risk factors (that we are soon going to go into depth about) cause the cell pathway disruptions that allow for the cells to act up and proliferate (reproduce) uncontrollably. A cell in its normal division cycle will have independent steps and regulators to prepare for proliferation, but in a cancer cell, multiple of those regulators must get overthrown for cancer to develop and spread. The steps that happen for cancer to develop are most likely specific to the cancer types, but most common cancers have an estimated 5-6. (White, 2015, p. 3)
Cellular level explanations aside, we know that cancer development could likely have to do with a mutation in the genetic code of a person. This means an individual has the risk of developing a cancer that could be passing through generations of their family. And while it is unfortunate, and there’s no way of changing your genes, practicing prevention strategies (see our next paragraph) can help to reduce the risk. Continuing less controllable risk factors, it is known that pollution has an influence on cancer development. Living in a largely urban area can be heavy on your risk for cancer, as you are breathing in the fumes, you increase lung inflammation. This inflammation will become dangerous quick, as it helps to develop angiogenesis, which are specific blood vessels that help tumors spread throughout your body. You are also decreasing your immune system strength through inhalation; your ability to fight off any future cancer will become weaker. In relation to fume exposure, occupation can also be a contributing factor to cancer development. If you are working in a field that constantly has chemicals in the air, consequences like pollution will become prevalent.
On the contrary, there are many controllable risk factors that we are exposed to day-to-day, and reducing being around them can lower the risks of developing varying cancers. The two biggest culprits in cancer development are possibly the most achievable prevention practices. Up to 30% of cancer related deaths have to do with the tobacco use. This one, while it may be difficult for some, can be so beneficial to not just preventing lung cancer, but also many oral conditions.
The second cause, we could talk for hours about, and that would be a balanced diet. This causes up to 35%! of cancers and originates from two problems: lack of exercise (5%) and obesity (30%). (White, 2015, p.5) It is so important to have a diet that consists of purely beneficial nutrients. An example of a nutrient-filled food would be colorful fruits and vegetables, the more color present in them, the more flavonoids there are. Flavonoids are what give the fruit their color and are the molecules that help to prevent cancer from forming by regulating the cell cycle. Additionally, decreasing, or even cutting out the amount of red and processed meat that you are consuming can decrease cancer risks tremendously. Remember how we said obesity is one of the leading causes for cancer prevention? In processed meats (bacon, chorizo, ham, hotdogs…), there are so many calories, but it is not filling. This is going to lead you to eat more and more, to the point where it would be very hard to burn it off. Obesity can occur following that vicious cycle. Red meats, (which would be beef, lamb, or pork), they are known as carcinogenic, which means there are certain enzymes in them that break down cells in your bowel during digestion. This can increase your chances of developing bowel and stomach cancer greatly. (Cancer Council NSW, 2024, pg. 1). The consumption of red meat causes cell damage to the bowel and other cells through the hydrocarbons, heme iron, and heterocyclic amines red meat holds (NIH, 2024). Instead of these, try swapping your red meat for fish, and your processed meats for chicken or tofu!
Now, with all the formal explanations out of the way, this seems like the part where we try to influence you to change your whole lifestyle to revolve around cancer prevention. A wrong assumption that would be. Healthy prevention habits are so simple, you will find yourself living such a similar life to what you had been doing every day before! You hear so much about these extensive efforts to prevent cancer, but really, it’s all about how you conduct your day to day. The easiest and most effective effort you can do for yourself to prevent cancer is to live a healthy life. Living a healthy life sounds like a simple way to prevent cancer and it is! There are many ways to live healthy including minimizing tobacco intake (preferably to none), maintaining a healthy weight, consuming healthy/clean foods, protecting your skin from UV rays, and getting regular health screens. If you were to combine all these efforts into your lifestyle, you’re looking at a 30-50% decrease in cancer development in your body (National Library of Medicine, 2025, pg 7.). Yes! It’s that easy to minimize cancer development in your body! We as a cancer awareness group strive to raise awareness for the ways in which individuals can decrease their risk of cancer development but increase their risk in cancer prevention, and as we discussed above, living a healthy lifestyle is the easiest and most efficient way to reduce your risk of cancer development.
We listed this before as a major risk, but by minimizing tobacco intake, it reduces your exposure to the harmful chemicals that smoking emits into your mouth and lungs. These chemicals are known to harm DNA sequences that specifically lead to uncontrollable cancer cell growth. Even if an individual was a consistent smoker and they decide to quit smoking after years, it will STILL decrease their risk of getting cancer (Mayo Clinic, 2024, pg.1). While smoking significantly decreases an individual’s cancer risk, so does maintaining a healthy weight and eating healthy. Plus, it can decrease your risk of many other diseases! An example of other diseases in addition cancer being prevented simultaneously with a “clean” food is the consumption of blueberries. Now listen, this is random, but while the blueberries have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties to lower stomach cancer risk, they also help to prevent cardiovascular diseases (MedicalNewsToday, 2025, pg. 1). As keeping a healthy diet works to lower one’s body fat percentage and prevent obesity, it also reduces inflammation in the body and reduces the endocrine disruptors in the body that usually encourage the development of cancer cells (CancerResearchUk, 2022). While the cancer prevention tactics we explained sound simple, can you believe there are even simpler ways!? By just minimizing your sun exposure and protecting your skin using sunscreen, they both block your skin from the harmful rays that the sun emits. The sun’s rays can quickly develop squamous cell carcinoma within your skin’s barrier. Sunscreen/skin protection lowers your risk of developing skin cancer by about 40 precent (Skin Cancer Foundation, 2024). Finally, one of the most important and effective ways to prevent cancer is getting your routine health screens. Cancer’s common stigma is that once one encounter cancer cells in their body, it’s a death wish, but it’s not. By getting routine health screens that include cancer screenings, you can detect cancer in its early stages before it has metastasized, allowing for a greater chance of survival and effectiveness of treatment. By putting in these small efforts throughout your life, cancer risks are reduced. You are still able to live a normal day-to-day life whilst keeping healthy, so why not go ahead and take the extra step to prevent cancer!
By now, we have gone over how cancer develops, what are the largest risk factors for cancer contraction, and how you can take initiative to beat cancer before it starts. We hope that you see how simple preventing cancer can be, and that you continue to pass these strategies onto the people you love, because that’s all we are trying to do. We want to reach as many people as possible; cancer prevention is so simple, and everyone should be practicing it.