Thanks to Linode Cloud Computing, for supporting this episode of SciShow.

Head to linode.com/scishow to learn more and get a $100 60-day credit on a new Linode account. [ ♩ Intro ] Finding a cure for cancer is basically the holy grail of medicine. There have been countless studies aimed at treating different types of cancer, and they've seriously improved the odds of beating this disease.

But one thing that gets a lot less research attention is how to reduce the risk of cancer in the first place. And there’s definitely some evidence for individual strategies to reduce cancer risk. Like don’t smoke.

But in a study published this week in Frontiers in Aging, researchers explored the effectiveness of combinations of prevention strategies. They found that, rather than look for a magic food or behavior that protects against cancer, we might be better off combining multiple prevention strategies. ~ So far, a lot of the research into individual strategies for preventing cancer has produced mixed results. And where studies do show a positive effect, that effect is sometimes underwhelming, whether due to different study designs or other reasons.

But the international team behind this week’s study thought that the effects might be more significant if some of these strategies were combined. So, they decided to carry out an experiment, with the help of 2100 participants in five different European countries, all of them cancer-free and over the age of 70. For this study, the researchers combined three interventions that have some effect on cancer cells, but have had mixed results in prevention studies.

The first was vitamin D. Vitamin D slows the growth of cancer cells by messing with the genes that control cell reproduction and functionality. But in randomized clinical trials, vitamin D doesn’t seem to do much to actually prevent most cancers.

At most, it may help prevent advanced cancer and cancer deaths.~ The second intervention was a specific kind of omega-3 fatty acids. These nutrients, which can be found in things like fish oil and marine algae, have been shown to reduce inflammation, cell reproduction, and the development of new blood vessels that can feed tumors. But overall, randomized clinical trials show that omega-3 supplements don’t do much either when it comes to cancer prevention. ~ The researchers’ third intervention was even simpler: exercise.

Exercise can decrease inflammation and increase immune system function, both of which could prevent cancer. And many studies have shown that exercise is at least associated with a decreased risk of cancer. But very few have been able to determine whether or not exercise actually causes that decreased risk.

That’s because not many have been randomized controlled trials like this one, which are the gold standard for investigating cause and effect. ~ So the authors of this study wanted to explore the effect of the three interventions put together. To do that, they divided the participants into various groups. Some groups got just one of the interventions.

Other groups got a combination of two or three interventions. And another group got a placebo. Participants who were assigned vitamin D and omega-3 supplements took those as pills once a day.

The exercise intervention was designed as a simple at-home workout that could be done in the living room. The participants continued with the interventions they were assigned for the next three years. During that time, the researchers checked in every three months to see if any participants had developed an invasive cancer.

That’s a cancer that can’t just be cut out of the tissue it developed in. And at the end of the three years, the researchers assessed the overall effect of the interventions on the different groups. They found that each of the three individual interventions showed a small preventative benefit, but not enough that scientists could be sure it wasn’t just due to chance.

On the other hand, in the group that got all three interventions, participants were 61% less likely to have developed an invasive cancer than the group that got the placebo. ~ These results are exciting, particularly because all of the interventions are theoretically pretty easy. Vitamin D and omega-3 supplements are widely available. Though, the quality, purity, and dosage of supplements can vary enormously.

And exercise is, well, free, give or take whatever gym memberships you sign up for. The researchers also claim this was the first randomized controlled trial of exercise as a potential method of cancer prevention, ever. The results suggest that it may be helpful to think about cancer prevention as a combination of strategies that interact to lower your risk, rather than a single strategy that works alone.

But this regimen isn’t necessarily a silver bullet. While 2100 participants sounds like a lot, once you split them into all the different groups, it’s actually kind of a small study with a couple hundred people per group, which means that the number of cancer cases in general was pretty small. And it’s harder to draw conclusions from small numbers.

It’s also too small a sample size to make any claims about whether this regimen is good or bad at preventing any specific kind of cancer. And finally, when it comes to thinking about cancer prevention, three years actually isn’t very long. So scientists will need to replicate these results and extend similar studies over a longer time period to get a better idea of just how meaningful these results are.

But for now, they’re promising. Because, as of today, approximately 40% of people in the U. S. will get cancer during their lifetime.

While many of those cases can be successfully treated, cancer is still the second-leading cause of death worldwide. And it costs the U. S. alone around 150 billion dollars a year.

So, any steps we can take to prevent cancer are incredibly important. And this study gives us a new way to think about just how we might do that. Thanks to Linode for sponsoring this video.

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