Researchers in the UK have projected that the incidence of colon cancer over the next 15 years could be cut by as much as one-quarter by changes in one’s lifestyle.

Five factors were studied by Cancer Research UK including reducing red and processed meat intake to less than 90 grams per day; eating at least five servings of fruits, vegetables and fiber; exercising 150 minutes per week; reducing obesity rates to where they were in 1989; and drinking less than 21 units of alcohol per week by men and 15 units by women.

Professor Donald Maxwell Perkin and his co-authors said the changes would be even more beneficial in reducing the incidence of other diseases, writing "the preventive interventions described in this study would save more deaths from other causes (cancer of the breast and upper GI tract, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes) than from colorectal cancer."

Men stood to benefit the most, with a possible decrease in new cancer diagnoses of 32 percent, while diagnoses in women could drop by 18 percent.

Most cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed in those over the age of 50, the study reported.