{UAH} the biggest proportion of cancer is due to the behaviour of genes

the biggest proportion of cancer is due to the behaviour of genes - some inherited, some from mutations that become more frequent with age. That is why the attribution from environmental risk is only 30%.
However, without the tools for universal access to gene diagnostics, the most plausible public health actions are (1) Screening for early detection of developing disease, and (2) Lifestyle modification to suppress the attributable risk that we can deal with.


scientists are still only trying to assemble them and package them in a way that is usable in public health: In Public Health we always seek tests that are cheap, accessible, applicable on a massive scale but valid enough to find those at risk. Even when we decide to screen, we only screen when we can do something. If knowing your status will lead you to having a very poor quality of life, ethics tells us not to screen. Lastly, the expression of genes is highly linked to environmental triggers. These 'epi-genetic' factors are as important as the genes themselves.


Lastly, an attributable risk of 30% cannot be ignored. If we dealt with that at first as we wait for more rigorous diagnostics to become widely accessible, we shall have made good progress - especially as it would reduce cancer deaths by nearly one third.

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"War is nothing but a  continuation of political intercourse, with a mixture of other means. Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest." 

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