People in their 20s should be told their cancer risk to shock them into changing their lifestyle, a study by Cambridge University suggests.

Up to 40 per cent of cancers are linked to factors such as diet, exercise, smoking and alcohol, resulting in around 600,000 cases of avoidable disease in the UK in the past five years.

The study of GPs and practice nurses found that most believed that the best way to encourage lifestyle changes was to tackle patients at a younger age.

Doctors said providing patients with personalised information – including a numerical risk estimate about the chance of disease, based on their current lifestyle – was likely to be more effective than “generic” health advice.

And they said the focus should be on targeting patients at an early age.

“There was a general consensus that, although providing the information to older patients might be helpful, the focus should be on targeting younger people in their 20s and 30s for whom any lifestyle changes would have the greatest impact.”

Currently most risk assessments carried out at GP surgeries are based on patient’s risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Telegraph

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