to think people who think cancer is caused by lifestyle choices are ignorant?

You obviously don't know a lot of people or read or watch TV. Are you living under a rock?

@VWHoliday Well I wasn't counting people on tv as people I know 

I went to uni, have had various different jobs, lived in different parts of the country, but I've fortunately never personally known a young person get cancer (though obviously I'm aware that they can get it). I know a couple of people over 50 who have had it.

I agree. My best friend got bowel cancer at the age of 19 - it was just really bad luck. Remember once being lectured by a nutritionist who claimed this was all down to lifestyle - made me fume!

Colleague is ignorant and could definitely cause great distress.

However Ignoring that some behaviour increases the risk of cancer would be irresponsible. As regards an individual for example with their doctor, family in terms of establishing good diet and society with the smoking ban.

Being healthier won’t stop you getting any cancer. It may reduce the risk for some people. It may also make you fit enough to withstand treatment. My very healthy cousin died of cancer leaving two children. The health gave strength to withstand treatment and gave extra time. (Of course general fitness isn’t just lifestyle- I have underlying conditions that mean I wouldn’t withstand that treatment however good my lifestyle, but a better lifestyle won’t harm me).

By contrast I do not know anyone personally that has had cancer.
I know of people (friend of friend for example), but not one person I would count as friend or family.
So I'm not surprised the PP doesn't know of anyone under 40.

@MichaelAndEagle I suspect that there might be a sampling bias. People who click on the cancer thread are more likely to be people who have been personally affected by cancer. Still, feeling rather fortunate that I've made it to my mid 30s without experiencing one of my peers going through this.

https://www.wcrf-uk.org/preventing-cancer/how-do-we-know-cancer-can-be-prevented/

This is worth a look. Lots of cancers are random but there are things you can do to reduce your risk of developing some cancers.

Of my friend group from uni (7 people under 40) 3 of them have had cancer. None of the 3 smoke, drink to excess or are overweight. Your colleague is talking out of her arse.

I know many more people that have cancer and it seems to be dumb luck as to why they got it. Similarly I know smokers, fat people and binge drinkers that don't have cancer.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer at 33. Although tested negative for any "dodgy" genes I have a very strong family history so I'd imagine there is a heavy genetic element there.

My take for what it's worth - people don't want to consider it could happen to them so they "other" it. So "it happened to x because they smoked". "It happened to y because they're a bit big". If you can assign a reason, you can stop it happening to you. It's just a bit of denial. Before I was diagnosed, like everyone I just presumed I'd grow old. Even though after my treatment I have been told I have a very good chance of it never coming back, I fully appreciate that life is very fragile and anything can happen. I don't think you have that true awareness if you've not been through something like that. So making cancer something that happens to other people allows you to keep presuming you'll live forever

I've known quite a few people get cancer under 40, and sadly also quite a few who died, including one while we were still at school.

@FannythePinkFlamingo DH also has had cancer due to Lynch syndrome. Hope you're doing okay.

I have a friend who has had cancer in her 30s, with some lifestyle factors mentioned, but doesn't mean she doesn't deserve sympathy.

I hated how when DH's cancer was mentioned people often asked if he smoked and someone told me he should have followed a vegan diet to avoid it.

So how does she explain childhood cancers?

I think cancer is down to faulty genes. Not necessarily hereditary, although obviously it can be, but just mutations in the cells and genes themselves and I don’t think that’s diet etc related.

My mum, Gran and uncle all died of fast growing bowel cancer. From diagnosis to death, 6-8 weeks for each of them. All of them had colonoscopies and endoscopies and blood tests that were coming back okay and normal until it was found too late - it only showed up on a CT scan and then grew very suddenly. I think there must be a faulty part of our bowel / gene. All of them very healthy, vegetarian, slim, etc etc.

My dad is now 84 and still works full time. He started smoking at 11 and smokes about 40 a day, always has done. Never eats fruit. Never exercises. Never had anything wrong with him, ever. Don’t think he’s even seen a doctor since he was a kid.

Of course these stories are just my own experiences. But I really don’t think we understand enough about cancer. We kid ourselves we can avoid it by doing xyz because our health being out of our control is scary. But that’s what it is. That’s why people tell people like me with chronic conditions like lupus to eat better / exercise more etc because it makes them feel less scared of their own health to think you can change it.

Cancer in my opinion has a lot to do with genetics and bad luck. I know someone who died of lung cancer and never smoked a cigarette in her life. I also know people in their 90s who smoke,drink and eat crap and are still going strong. But putting blame on a person who has or had cancer is really low

Obviously it is not the case that cancer is always caused by lifestyle choices. That is an ignorant view. But it is well-researched that certain lifestyle choices considerably increase your chances of getting certain cancers.

Depends on the cancer, some are more likely to be caused by environmental factors. Other types are genetic, some are down to back luck for want of a better expression

Utter harmful nonsense about lifestyle causing cancer. Obviously there are theories about causes and links but how do they explain childhood cancer?

Or the lung cancer of a sister who never smoked vs the sister who smoked 40 a day and lived to 88?

The cancer of a woman who only ever ate vegetarian, home grown food and exercised regularly and still got cancer?

A young woman who lived a healthy lifestyle and discovered she was riddled with stage 4 terminal cancer with no symptoms?

Cancer is a rotten disease that can happen to anyone.

Your colleague (and others on this thread) are victim blaming?

I’m in my fifties. The one person who died in our friendship group and who we all miss terribly was the correct weight, slim, fit, worked out regularly, didn’t drink to
excess, active, virtually vegan, ate no red meat, didn’t eat any processed meat, cooked all their own food from scratch. Cancer doesn’t discriminate.

I knew a 3 week old baby who had cancer. Wonder what she’s say about his lifestyle

Unfortunately my sister-in-law has this attitude. I will always remember when a relative of hers died, and she commented, 'well, he didn't look after himself.'
Victim blaming at its finest.

By contrast I do not know anyone personally that has had cancer.
I know of people (friend of friend for example), but not one person I would count as friend or family.
So I'm not surprised the PP doesn't know of anyone under 40.

There is a difference between 'caused by' and 'fault of'. It's all a big numbers game. For example eating processed food such as bacon increases your risk of certain cancers. It doesn't mean that if you get them it's your fault for eating bacon. More and more we are understanding how genetics comes down the generations and childhood cancers risks may be increased because of the exposure of parents or even grandparents to certain foods or environmental factors. It doesn't mean the parents are to blame.

I know of 2 children, under 10, who've died of cancer in the last year alone.

Obviously your colleague is ignorant and unkind. I expect this belief gives her some kind of comfort.

Cancers really are cruel diseases and yes, while lifestyle can contribute, it often doesn’t.

My maternal Grandma smoked from 16 (probably unfiltered for the first decades) and didn’t develop lung cancer, never even had breathing difficulties. Yet my paternal Grandpa DID die of lung cancer, presumably caused by his smoking. Why one and not the other?

Obviously most cancers aren't lifestyle choices, one of the problems you get is press report eating red meat doubles cancer risk but if that risk is .5 it is now 1 percent.

Many are lifestyle a lot aren't too

Be skeptical all you like, the links are well established. Smoking doesn't just vaguely increase your chances of certain cancers, it directly causes it. We know this.

It's not even slight;y true that we haven't moved on in the last 50 years, we have so many treatments and advances in that time. So many people have survived cancers that would have killed them, or had their lives extended.

Some people like to think that we have more control over our health than we actually do have. I think it makes them feel safer. Lifestyle choices increase the risk for some cancers and for some other illnesses. Some cancers and other illnesses strike randomly. This attitude becomes a problem if people start blaming people for their health problems.