Cancer prevention includes the actions taken to lower the chance of getting cancer. These actions can depend on a person’s lifestyle habits, such as following a healthy diet, getting adequate physical activity, refraining from smoking and limiting alcohol consumption. Scientists consider these lifestyle choices as protective factors, or factors that lessen the chance that a person will develop some types of cancers. There are risk factors that cannot be avoided such as inheriting certain genes that may place a person at risk for developing cancer. Avoiding risk factors and increasing protective factors does not mean that you will never get cancer.