Is Cancer Prevention Effective in the United States?

Is Cancer Prevention Effective in the United States? (1:06)

Preventable factors are to blame for many cancers in the U.S., according to Dr. Otis Webb Brawley of the American Cancer Society. In this HealthMakers video, he spotlights two leading causes: smoking and obesity.

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The United States does a very poor job in terms of disease prevention overall especially disease prevention in cancer. I am very concerned about the fact that 20 to 22% of Americans still smoke cigarettes, and we know it causes 15 different kinds of cancer. We have a huge obesity problem, 4% of kids were obese in 1970 and it's 20% today and we know that kids who get obese never get skinny in adulthood or rarely get skinny in adulthood.

Obesity, bad nutrition and lack of physical activity is like a three legged stool and it is now the second leading cause of cancer. In the next 10-15 years, it could surpass tobacco as the leading cause of cancer. So here we have something that's incredibly preventable, something a problem it didn't exist in the 1960's and now it's going to start pushing our cancer mortality rates up in the next 10-15 years.