|NCI/PDQ® Patients: Endometrial Cancer Prevention (PDQ®)|
|National Cancer Institute| | Last Modified: May 23, 2005
Doctors cannot always explain why one person gets cancer and
another does not. However, scientists have studied general
patterns of cancer in the population to learn what things around
us and what things we do in our lives may increase our chance of
developing cancer. Anything that increases a person's chance of
developing a disease is called a risk factor; anything that
decreases a person's chance of developing a disease is called a
protective factor. Some of the risk factors for cancer can be
avoided, but many cannot. For example, although you can choose
to quit smoking, you cannot choose which genes you have
inherited from your parents. Both smoking and inheriting
specific genes could be considered risk factors for certain
kinds of cancer, but only smoking can be avoided. Prevention
means avoiding the risk factors and increasing the protective
factors that can be controlled so that the chance