Prof David Whiteman – “How many cancers might we prevent? An analysis of the burden of cancer in Australia attributable to modifiable factors”

Epidemiologic and experimental evidence accrued over the past five decades has established that many factors to which humans are commonly exposed are causes of cancer. Because exposure to such factors is potentially modifiable, it is important to quantify the proportion of cancers that might be averted if exposure to those factors were removed entirely or reduced to the minimum compatible with optimum health. In a landmark study commissioned by the Cancer Council Australia, Professor Whiteman and his colleagues from the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute estimated the population attributable fraction (PAF) of cancers associated with exposure to 14 internationally-recognized causal factors. This presentation will explore the issues relating to estimates of the preventable cancer burden, and will describe and discuss the burden of cancer attributable to tobacco smoke, alcohol, obesity, dietary factors, solar radiation, exogenous hormonal therapies, infections and physical inactivity .

Professor David Whiteman is a medical epidemiologist with a special interest in the causes, control and prevention of cancer. He received his medical degree from the University of Queensland in 1991, and his PhD in cancer epidemiology in 1997. He was awarded a Nuffield Medical Research Fellowship to undertake post-doctoral training at the University of Oxford in cancer epidemiology. He returned to Brisbane in 2000, and now leads a large program of cancer research comprising national and international studies of melanoma and other cancers.