Jonathan Lambert

Cancer has a variety of causes.

Some people can't do anything about, like genetics.

But many cancers are caused by factors that may be somewhat under one's control, like smoking or drinking alcohol.

Researchers analyzed data on over two dozen kinds of cancer across 185 countries.

They found that about 7 million of the nearly 19 million new cancer cases in 2022 may have been preventable.

Cervical cancer, for instance, can be largely prevented with the HPV vaccine.

Drinking less alcohol can reduce risk of stomach cancer, and lung cancer can be caused by smoking, which an individual can quit.

But it can also be caused by air pollution, which requires more collective action to address.

The research appears in the journal Nature Medicine.

Jonathan Lambert, NPR News.

Just over one year ago, President Trump announced his intention to leave the World Health Organization, accusing the agency of mismanaging the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.S.

has to give one year's notice to withdraw, according to a decades-old congressional resolution.

That same resolution also stipulates that the U.S.

can only leave if it's paid all its outstanding dues, and it currently owes over $250 million.

The U.S.

won't be paying that, the State Department told NPR, but says it's still out of the WHO.

The exit has cut millions from WHO's budget and forced layoffs at the agency.

The withdrawal could also mean that the U.S.

loses access to key health and disease data that influences everything from designing annual flu shots to detecting the virus that could spark the next pandemic.