A new report released on Friday has revealed that nearly 600,000 cases of cancer in the United Kingdom could have been avoided in the last five years if people had led healthier lives during that time span.

According to Cancer Research United Kingdom, more than half a million cases of cancer in the last five years could have been prevented if people made various adjustments to their lifestyles. The adjustments are nothing new under the sun, but the amount of cancer cases eliminated on a yearly basis is pretty staggering once you look at the numbers based off each adjustment made.

Researchers believe that an estimated 42% of cancer cases in the United Kingdom are preventable. The biggest cancer prevention technique is being smoke free. Data collected showed that more than 50,000 cancer cases can be prevented on a yearly basis alone if people were smoke free. Some of the other top factors that could lead to less cancer cases include keeping a healthy weight, eating more fruits and vegetables and drinking less alcohol.

Some of the main forms of preventable cancers are lung cancer, malignant melanoma (skin cancer) and oesophageal cancer. Each one of these forms of cancer has at least an 86% prevention rate, which means that if the proper steps are taken, thousands of these cases could be eliminated on a year-to-year basis.

The findings of this study aren’t specific to just the UK. These findings can greatly help countries across the world, and show that a part of being cancer free is living a healthy, active lifestyle. While some of the changes that were highlighted in the findings are too late to make for many already inflicted with cancer, going forward, these tips could literally save millions of lives not just in the UK , but across the world.