{"entity":{"id":"risk-factor","kind":"term","name":"Risk factor","aka":["risk factors","risk-factor","risk-factors","modifiable risk factor","modifiable risk factors","carcinogen","carcinogens","carcinogenic","cancer risk","increased risk","elevated risk","higher risk","relative risk of","predisposition","predisposing","exposure to","exposures","attributable","cancer risks"],"tldr":"Anything that raises the chance of developing a cancer: smoking, alcohol, obesity, sunlight, certain infections, inherited genes, age. Around 40% of cancers in high-income countries are attributable to modifiable factors, so having a risk factor does not mean getting cancer, and the majority of cancers cannot be pinned on a modifiable one.","summary":"Around 40% of cancers in high-income countries are attributable to modifiable factors, tobacco alone causing about a fifth of cancer deaths, followed by excess weight, alcohol, infections (HPV, hepatitis B and C, H. pylori), ultraviolet light, and inactivity; the IARC classifies agents by the strength of evidence that they cause cancer in humans. Non-modifiable factors include age (the biggest), sex, inherited mutations, and family history. Risk factors drive prevention (vaccination, smoking cessation, alcohol policy), define who is offered screening (heavy smokers for lung CT, BRCA carriers for MRI), and, through the mutational signatures they leave, can sometimes be read directly from a tumour's DNA.","asOf":"2026-09-09","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_factor","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_factor"}],"tags":[],"related":["incidence-vs-prevalence","screening","hereditary-cancer-syndromes","mutational-signature","inflammation","alcohol-attributable-cancer","obesity-related-cancers"],"cancers":[],"sections":[],"technologies":["hpv-vaccine","chemoprevention"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"category":"Clinic basics"},"route":"/terms/risk-factor/","neighbours":{"term":[{"id":"alcohol-attributable-cancer","kind":"term","name":"Alcohol-attributable cancer","route":"/terms/alcohol-attributable-cancer/"},{"id":"hereditary-cancer-syndromes","kind":"term","name":"Hereditary cancer syndromes","route":"/terms/hereditary-cancer-syndromes/"},{"id":"incidence-vs-prevalence","kind":"term","name":"Incidence versus prevalence","route":"/terms/incidence-vs-prevalence/"},{"id":"inflammation","kind":"term","name":"Inflammation","route":"/terms/inflammation/"},{"id":"mutational-signature","kind":"term","name":"Mutational signature","route":"/terms/mutational-signature/"},{"id":"obesity-related-cancers","kind":"term","name":"Obesity-related cancers (IARC list of 13)","route":"/terms/obesity-related-cancers/"},{"id":"screening","kind":"term","name":"Screening","route":"/terms/screening/"},{"id":"squamous-cell-carcinoma","kind":"term","name":"Squamous cell carcinoma","route":"/terms/squamous-cell-carcinoma/"}],"technology":[{"id":"chemoprevention","kind":"technology","name":"Chemoprevention & risk-reducing surgery","route":"/technologies/chemoprevention/"},{"id":"hpv-vaccine","kind":"technology","name":"HPV & HBV vaccination","route":"/technologies/hpv-vaccine/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-calle-obesity-cancer-mortality-nejm-2003","kind":"paper","name":"Calle 2003: overweight, obesity and death from cancer in 900,000 US adults","route":"/key-papers/paper-calle-obesity-cancer-mortality-nejm-2003/"}],"journal":[{"id":"british-journal-of-cancer","kind":"journal","name":"British Journal of Cancer","route":"/journals/british-journal-of-cancer/"},{"id":"carcinogenesis","kind":"journal","name":"Carcinogenesis","route":"/journals/carcinogenesis/"},{"id":"molecular-carcinogenesis","kind":"journal","name":"Molecular carcinogenesis","route":"/journals/molecular-carcinogenesis/"},{"id":"oncology-reports","kind":"journal","name":"Oncology reports","route":"/journals/oncology-reports/"},{"id":"plos-medicine","kind":"journal","name":"PLOS Medicine","route":"/journals/plos-medicine/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"prevention-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Cancer prevention roadmap: tobacco control and vaccines → biomarker-guided chemoprevention → interception in carriers","route":"/roadmaps/prevention-roadmap/"},{"id":"nutrition-lifestyle-roadmap","kind":"roadmap","name":"Diet, exercise and lifestyle roadmap: causes established → interventions that disappointed → exercise proven as treatment","route":"/roadmaps/nutrition-lifestyle-roadmap/"}]}}