If physical activity could be put in a pill it would be the next cancer "wonder drug".
But it can't, which is why Australians need to get off their tush to significantly reduce their chances of getting the deadly disease, says Cancer Council Australia CEO and President of the Union for International Cancer Control, Professor Sanchia Aranda.
Cancer can be the result of bad luck, but not "everything" will cause the disease.
Thinking that everything will cause you cancer is "fatalistic" and can lead to complacency, warns Prof Aranda.
The science shows that one-third of cancers are preventable. They are largely due to six main risk factors, led by smoking and then sun exposure.
Being overweight, having a poor diet and not doing enough exercise - which are all interrelated - is the next biggest risk factor.
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"We are already curing 68 per cent of people," Prof Aranda told AAP.
"With cancer it's much more about making people understand that cancer can be prevented but also that your best chance of surviving is to diagnose it early."
"Both of those things, prevention and diagnosis, require each of us to take active steps to maintain and monitor our own health," she said.
Each year in Australia there are 1,800 preventable cancers attributed to just inactivity, a further 3,900 cases were caused by high body mass, a risk factor that can also be reduced by being more active.
The cancers directly linked to inactivity are bowel, breast and uterine.
Specifically, about seven per cent of bowel cancers, eight per cent for breast cancers and six per cent for uterine cancers would be prevented if people got more active, says Prof Aranda.
Just five hours of moderate exercise, or 150 minutes of vigorous exercise, a week is what the Cancer Council recommends to reduce cancer risk.
Obviously, there will still be people who get these cancers but these positive steps will help, said Prof Aranda.
"Paying attention to your health, exercise in particular, is not only beneficial for preventing cancer it is also beneficial for preventing heart disease, diabetes and stroke."
$125 million injection for medical research
Researchers and scientists trying to tackle problems in health and medicine such as cancer, tropical diseases and concussions in sport have been given a $125 million funding injection.
Research into dementia, mental health and indigenous health will also benefit from the five-year federal funding package.
Greg Hunt awarded the funding to 110 projects and 232 researchers in Melbourne on Saturday in his first act as health minister.
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