ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the issue of the presence of risk factors that are not modifiable but signal need for heightened monitoring or diagnostic testing even if no screening exists or is performed. Public health experts have long proposed that modifiable risk factors such as smoking, diet, physical activity levels and excessive alcohol consumption are associated with increased risk of carcinogenesis and thus the incidence of cancer. Increasingly, analyses of causal pathways for cancer have come to include an assessment of the potentiality of these modifiable risk factors and lack of a usual source of care. The chapter discusses whether there is evidence that links the higher prevalence of risk behaviors to specific anatomical cancer sites. It describes the evidence regarding the association between breast cancer and three potentially modifiable risk factors among older adults: hormone replacement therapy, nutrition/obesity and health behaviour.
