Environmental Causues of Cancer - 1257318

I'm not sure we can give you the best answers to that question because our specialists specialize in cancer treatment not causes. I know it seems that the two should fit but it turns out to be much more complicated than that. Researchers have mapped dna and are beginning to find molecular changes such as mutations that are known to be "drivers" of cancer and have even found and are using drugs that can inhibit cancer growth.
Understanding why is a different bully.

Perhaps Dr. West or others in our community will know of resources that can point you in the right direction. But I'm afraid that there so many moving parts to the question that it would be difficult to isolate an answer that could be thought of in the general science community as truth. An example that comes to mind is global warming or perhaps a less scarey term climate change. i started hearing about that when I was in the 3rd/4th grade...1967ish and while most accept that it is happening there is no consensus of why.

This is the search result from Grace on "environmental causes (you may need to log off to access this or to use our search feature depending on your browser), http://cancergrace.org/search-results?q=environmental%20causes

Radon has been proven to cause cancer. Here is a discussion on the topic as it applies to lung cancer, http://cancergrace.org/lung/2009/11/02/radon-in-lung-cancer/

All the best in your search,
Janine

Cancer development is a complex combination of genetic features, random events (luck), and environmental exposures. Just about every ongoing exposure, from foods to smoke (inhaled tobacco or in the air), sunlight, alcohol, infections, etc. contribute to risk of developing cancer. The evidence is overall pretty compelling that an American diet heavy in meat, fatty foods, and processed food-like products (not to be confused with something that occurs in nature, outside of a lab or factory) are associated with higher rates of many cancers. Some of this may be related to our high rates of obesity, which is of course an effect of our diet, along with the processed food products.

So any long-time exposure contributes to the cancers we see in a population, and overall the limited data indicate that heavily processed foods in our diet are not healthful. But these "epidemiology" questions about causes of cancer are really not what we do as cancer specialists, which is taking care of people with an established cancer. Because of that, the docs on faculty here really can't give a detailed answer to your appropriate but extremely large, complex question.

Good luck.

-Dr. West