Montreal Gazette

Forum to focus on prevention with lifestyle choices

- CHARLIE FIDELMAN cfidelman@postmedia.com

If a new study came out lauding a pill that could eradicate 30 to 50 per cent of future cancers, it would send waves of excitement throughout the world for such a remarkable achievemen­t.

Of course, there’s no such pill on the horizon, said Dr. Michael Pollak, director of the cancer prevention centre at the Jewish General Hospital and the Division of Cancer Prevention of the Department of Oncology at McGill University, but the science on cancer prevention is clear on how to cut cancer risk by up to 50 per cent.

“And we’re not doing a good enough job of applying that knowledge,” said Pollak, who is heading a public health forum with a catchy title, Is It True That Half of All Cancers Could Be Prevented?

Yes, it is true, said Pollak, who will be discussing the topic at the forum featuring Ken Cook, president and co-founder of Environmen­tal Working Group (EWG); and Hans Drouin, vice-president, R&D, of Attitude, which sells EWG-verified natural skin care and cleaning products.

Most lung cancers, for example, could be prevented by avoiding smoking, Pollak said, because most cases are caused by smoking. “Why take the risk? Every preventabl­e cancer should be prevented, that’s our motto.”

Unfortunat­ely, the messages have grown stale, Pollak said. These same stale messages that doctors nag their patients about are key: excess weight and lack of exercise, tobacco and alcohol use are known to contribute to cancer risk.

Alcohol, for example, increases breast cancer measurably — and head and neck, esophageal, liver, breast and colorectal cancers, and like tobacco, it is classed as a carcinogen.

Clearly, attention to these known facts should be increased without scaremonge­ring, Pollak said.

“We can’t promise no breast cancer if no one drinks,” he said. “We’re not telling drinkers of two glasses of wine a week to go to zero. The message is for those who drink to excess to pull back. If you drink four glasses of wine every day, you have a measurable increase of risk, somewhere between five and 10 per cent.”

Steadily drinking too much, as well as abstaining all week and then getting plastered on weekends, also increases risk, Pollak said.

Young women who binge drink may know it’s doing damage to their liver, Pollak said, “but they don’t know it’s increasing their breast cancer risk.”

About 26,300 Canadian women received a diagnosis of breast cancer last year, according to the Canadian Cancer Society, and almost 5,000 died of it.

The alcohol industry is pouring millions into funding U.S. studies on the benefits of moderate drinking, a relationsh­ip that some see as conflicted.

In Canada, the alcohol industry pushed back against a pilot project in the Yukon to label bottles of wine, beer and liquor with consumer safety warnings.

It should be noted that there are many other ways of cutting cancer risks, for example with the HPV vaccine that prevents infection by certain types of human papillomav­irus, and reducing exposure to environmen­tal carcinogen­s such as pesticides, he said.

Pollak said he is fascinated by absurd behaviour, for example, those who insist that their vegetables be organic and their cosmetics contain no carcinogen, while also continuing to smoke.

Cancer control has two wings — treatment and prevention, he said.

“We have to work on all fronts simultaneo­usly,” he added. “Some people do all the right things and, sadly, still get cancer. They have to rely on treatment.”

The public forum will be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but participan­ts must register at attitudeli­ving.com/publicforu­m.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Canada