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A new scientific study has found that 9 out of 10 cancers are caused due to external factors such as drinking, smoking, exposure to sun and air pollution. 2015 was the year when origins of cancer became an important topic of discussion. The question at the heart of the matter was whether it was random errors that led to DNA replication, the intrinsic cellular processes or the external factors like UV rays, smoking, obesity etc. It was discussed bitterly as to what led to the genetic mutations that cause the growth of cancerous cells. As a result, the researchers began working on refining the process of understanding what leads to cancer in the first place. Scientists have now been able to monitor and observe the malignant transformation of stem cells and progenitor cells that cause growth of the cancer tumor and show how different kinds of cancers start developing in the body. After that, by using the epidemiological data and rate of cancer in the population, they are able to predict the probability of occurrence of these events, reported Herald News.

Yusuf Hannun of Stony Brook University New York, US, said: "Here we provide evidence that intrinsic risk factors contribute only modestly to cancer development." He added, the rates of mutation accumulation by intrinsic processes are not sufficient to account for the observed cancer risks." The researchers also took reference from various studies conducted in the past that show how immigrants that move from low cancer incidence area to high cancer incidence area also become victims to higher possibility of developing the tumor. This suggests that the environmental risk is higher than the genetic or biological risk. Even though cancers may be driven by genetic mutations, the most prevalent cause of the disease is environmental factors, as reported by The Telegraph.