ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses environmental factors and cancer risk at the molecular, cellular, and organismic levels to elucidate the potential roles of environmental factors in tumor initiation and progression. As a genetic disease, cancer progression is affected by intrinsic, hereditary, and environmental factors. Recently, advances in next-generation sequencing have provided insights that improve our understanding of environmental factors and cancer risk. Environmental factors may affect cancer risk through not only introducing alterations at genetic and epigenetic levels but also by interfering in protein quality control systems. Those molecular level alterations further affect the homeostasis of stem cells, which are compelling targets of cancer progression. At the organismic level, endocrine disrupting chemicals, which comprise a category of environmental agents that alter carcinogenic risk, interfere with normal hormonal activity and increase cancer susceptibility and incidence. Importantly, through intervention of modifiable environmental factors, the potential impact of cancer prevention on reducing cancer burden may be achieved.
