Among the findings

— Smoking accounted for 82 per cent of lung cancers.

— Excess body weight was associated with 60 per cent of uterine cancers and about onethird of liver cancers.

— Alcohol intake was associated with 25 per cent of liver cancers in men and 12 per cent in women; 17 per cent of colorectal cancers in men and 8 per cent in women; and 16 per cent of breast cancers in women.

— Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from sunlight or tanning beds was associated with 96 per cent of skin cancers in men and 94 per cent in women.

Richard Clapp, a professor emeritus of environmental health at Boston University expects the new numbers to be will widely cited and used to make decisions about how to spend money on cancer prevention, just as the influential British study from 1981 by researchers Richard Doll and Richard Peto has been.

Clapp said there is still room for improvement, however. He said the study doesn’t address how two or more risk factors, like smoking and drinking, might work together in some cancer cases and deaths.

Also, aside from secondhand cigarette smoke, the researchers did not to include outdoor or indoor air pollution because the data on the cancer risk from pollution is not detailed enough to understand the national impact, said the study's lead author, Dr. Farhad Islami.