What Percentage of Cancer is Estimated to be Genetic?

ByPrimary Researcher

Executive Summary

  • A central assumption that the medical establishment helps perpetuate is that cancer is strongly genetic.
  • Just how much of global cancer is genetic in origin?

Introduction

Is cancer genetic?

The medical establishment emphasizes DNA and genetics research over lifestyle research. This is true even though cancer is only somewhere between 3% and 10% attributable to a person’s genetics. 

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Taking the Long View After Being Diagnosed With Cancer

This video does an excellent job of explaining the effectiveness of chemotherapy. I have included this video in several articles — as I want to address different studies that are addressed. For this article, I want to focus on the study shown at the midpoint of the video titled Cancer is a Preventable Disease that Requires Major Lifestyle Changes.

Cancer Genetic: What Percentage of Cancer is Due to Genes?

Only 5–10% of all cancer cases can be attributed to genetic defects, whereas the remaining 90–95% have their roots in the environment and lifestyle. The lifestyle factors include cigarette smoking, diet (fried foods, red meat), alcohol, sun exposure, environmental pollutants, infections, stress, obesity, and physical inactivity. The evidence indicates that of all cancer-related deaths, almost 25–30% are due to tobacco, as many as 30–35% are linked to diet, about 15–20% are due to infections, and the remaining percentage are due to other factors like radiation, stress, physical activity, environmental pollutants etc.

This is reinforced by the following quotation from Cancer Research.UK.

Cancers due to inherited faulty genes are much less common than cancers due to gene changes caused by ageing or other factors. Most cancers develop because of a combination of chance and our environment, not because we have inherited a specific cancer gene fault.

Genetic specialists estimate that between 5 and 10 in every 100 cancers (5 to 10%) diagnosed are linked to an inherited faulty gene.

This is little known outside of those that focus on cancer. And the reality is even more against the argument of the genetic basis of cancer than this low percentage.

The following section explains why.