What Makes for High Risk to Cancer?

Abstract

Two different characteristics enable us to recognise people who are at increased risk to the development of a specific type of cancer. First is an aetiological risk factor defining some cause whose removal might decrease the likelihood of cancer in an individual (e.g. cigarette smoking in relation to lung cancer, aromatic amines to bladder cancer, ionising radiation to leukaemia). Second is a descriptive risk factor defining personal characteristics of someone at high risk (e.g. family history in relation to breast cancer, fair skin to melanoma, multiple sexual partners to uterine cervical cancer). In the past, descriptive risk factors have sometimes led us to the aetiological risk factor involved in a cancer (e.g. sexual behaviour of a particular type has led to the search for the virus involved in uterine cervical cancer).