Cargando…

Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution

Besides our current health concerns due to COVID-19, cancer is a longer-lasting and even more dramatic pandemic that affects almost a third of the human population worldwide. Most of the emphasis on its causes has been posed on genetic predisposition, chance, and wrong lifestyles (mainly, obesity an...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8201328/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34198930
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116107
_version_ 1783707793451122688
author Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto
author_facet Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto
author_sort Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto
collection PubMed
description Besides our current health concerns due to COVID-19, cancer is a longer-lasting and even more dramatic pandemic that affects almost a third of the human population worldwide. Most of the emphasis on its causes has been posed on genetic predisposition, chance, and wrong lifestyles (mainly, obesity and smoking). Moreover, our medical weapons against cancers have not improved too much during the last century, although research is in progress. Once diagnosed with a malignant tumour, we still rely on surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The main problem is that we have focused on fighting a difficult battle instead of preventing it by controlling its triggers. Quite the opposite, our knowledge of the links between environmental pollution and cancer has surged from the 1980s. Carcinogens in water, air, and soil have continued to accumulate disproportionally and grow in number and dose, bringing us to today’s carnage. Here, a synthesis and critical review of the state of the knowledge of the links between cancer and environmental pollution in the three environmental compartments is provided, research gaps are briefly discussed, and some future directions are indicated. New evidence suggests that it is relevant to take into account not only the dose but also the time when we are exposed to carcinogens. The review ends by stressing that more dedication should be put into studying the environmental causes of cancers to prevent and avoid curing them, that the precautionary approach towards environmental pollutants must be much more reactionary, and that there is an urgent need to leave behind the outdated petrochemical-based industry and goods production.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8201328
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-82013282021-06-15 Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Besides our current health concerns due to COVID-19, cancer is a longer-lasting and even more dramatic pandemic that affects almost a third of the human population worldwide. Most of the emphasis on its causes has been posed on genetic predisposition, chance, and wrong lifestyles (mainly, obesity and smoking). Moreover, our medical weapons against cancers have not improved too much during the last century, although research is in progress. Once diagnosed with a malignant tumour, we still rely on surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The main problem is that we have focused on fighting a difficult battle instead of preventing it by controlling its triggers. Quite the opposite, our knowledge of the links between environmental pollution and cancer has surged from the 1980s. Carcinogens in water, air, and soil have continued to accumulate disproportionally and grow in number and dose, bringing us to today’s carnage. Here, a synthesis and critical review of the state of the knowledge of the links between cancer and environmental pollution in the three environmental compartments is provided, research gaps are briefly discussed, and some future directions are indicated. New evidence suggests that it is relevant to take into account not only the dose but also the time when we are exposed to carcinogens. The review ends by stressing that more dedication should be put into studying the environmental causes of cancers to prevent and avoid curing them, that the precautionary approach towards environmental pollutants must be much more reactionary, and that there is an urgent need to leave behind the outdated petrochemical-based industry and goods production. MDPI 2021-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8201328/ /pubmed/34198930 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116107 Text en © 2021 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Cazzolla Gatti, Roberto
Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution
title Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution
title_full Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution
title_fullStr Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution
title_full_unstemmed Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution
title_short Why We Will Continue to Lose Our Battle with Cancers If We Do Not Stop Their Triggers from Environmental Pollution
title_sort why we will continue to lose our battle with cancers if we do not stop their triggers from environmental pollution
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8201328/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34198930
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116107
work_keys_str_mv AT cazzollagattiroberto whywewillcontinuetoloseourbattlewithcancersifwedonotstoptheirtriggersfromenvironmentalpollution