No, We Can’t Say Whether Cancer Is Mostly Bad Luck

Two years ago, Time wrongly reported that “Most cancer is beyond your control.” The Guardian incorrectly wrote: “Two-thirds of adult cancers largely ‘down to bad luck’ rather than genes.” And the BBC misleadingly said: “Most cancer types ‘just bad luck.’” All of these deceptive headlines arose from a widely misinterpreted study that looked at the role of random chance in initiating cancers. That paper was itself criticized for a slew of methodological flaws, and spawned more than ahundred rebuttals.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/03/no-cancer-isnt-mostly-bad-luck/521049/