In this article, you’ll learn about what causes cancer. Bedside Manners' mission is to empower cancer patients and survivors through medical enrichment. Enjoy!  What causes cancer? There are a variety of known risk factors that cause cancer. For instance, lung cancer is directly linked to smoking tobacco, although environmental toxins have been linked as well.  Smoking is also linked to head and neck cancers, such as those of the mouth and throat.  Smoking and second-hand smoke is a major risk factor in causing damage to our body’s DNA. As you learned in the post “What is Cancer,” damaging DNA can lead to normal cells becoming cancerous. 70% Due to Food, Alcohol, and Tobacco Collectively this group is estimated to cause about 70% of cancers. This may be a surprise that this high of a percentage of cancers are caused by lifestyle. We discussed tobacco