investigation of cancer risk factors in the lifestyle of medical students at mashhad university of medical sciences

Introduction: every year, over 10 million new cases of cancer are diagnosed worldwide. cancers tend to be closely associated with lifestyle.this study aimed to investigate the lifestyle-related cancer risk factors in the medical students of mashhad university of medical sciences.materials and methods: this descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 270 students of mashhad university of medical sciences in iran, who were selected through convenience sampling. data collection was performed using a lifestyle risk factor questionnaire, which was provided to students online. data were analyzed with the statistical analysis software spss-21 by using descriptive statistics, chi-square, and mann-whitney tests at the 0.05 significance level.results: all participants were in the age range of 22-25 years old. about 28% of the participants were male and 72% were female. men showed higher awareness of cancer warning signs than women (p=0.046). women were more active in taking protection measures against chemical substances than men (p=0.042). men were in significantly better condition in terms of the use of hormones than women (p=0.048). married people were also more active in taking protection measures against chemical substances than single people (p=0.042).conclusion: compared to other lifestyle risk factors for cancer, the surveyed medical students had particularly poor “eating habits” and “solar radiation exposure”. about half of the surveyed students had a high level of exposure to sunlight. therefore, it is highly recommended to implement a program to raise students’ awareness of cancer risk factors and promote healthy lifestyles in this population.