Although science evolved a lot, it sometimes remains a mystery why one person gets cancer and another does not. It were studied general patterns of cancer in the population, scientists wanted to know exactly which factors increase the possibility of developing cancer, and which are the factors that decrease the chance of developing cancer.

Risk factors are those that contribute to an increased chance of developing a disease, and protective factors are called the factors that decrease a person’s chance of developing a disease.

It is important to know that some of the risk factors can be avoided, and other can not. We can make changes to our life-style, for example we can stop smoking, or drinking alcohol, but we can’t choose what genes to have, it is not up to us. The genes are inherited, and it is known that some genes are risk factors for some types of cancer.

However, a wise thing to do is to avoid as much as possible the risk factors, and to increase the protective factors, so that there will be a lower chance of developing cancer.

It was seen that some people are more affected by the risk factors than others, also, a lot of persons that have a particular risk for cancer do not actually get the disease, but it is good to know that even if we avoid most of the risk factors, there still exists a possibility that we develop cancer.

A type of cancer that affects many men is the prostate cancer. The prostate is a gland that can be found only in men, has a role in the production of semen, and is situated between the bladder and the rectum, having normally the size of a walnut.

A lot of men are affected by this disease, but the number of deaths is small.

There are some risk factors that seem to be involved, and not all of them can be avoided.

As a man gets older, there increases the risk of developing prostate cancer. It seems that a diet that contains a lot of fat presents an increased risk of prostate cancer, and a diet high in dairy products and calcium also increases the risk, but in a mild manner.

Chemoprevention can be used to prevent, reverse, or suppress the cancer growth. There can be used agents like isoflavonoids, difluoromethylornithine, vitamins D and E, selenium and lycopene. It was shown that there is a benefit by using them, but some studies are still necessary to confirm this.

It is also good to know that some studies are about to discover the role of some drugs in reducing the amount of men hormones in order to prevent the prostate cancer.

Studies revealed that the risk of developing cancer varies between races. For example, there is a high risk among blacks, a medium one among whites, and native Japanese have the lowest risk for prostate cancer.