Cancer represents a major and increasingly complex public-health challenge in Colombia. The country's cancer profile combines malignancies associated with tobacco, alcohol, obesity and metabolic risk with cancers strongly influenced by infectious agents, occupational exposures, environmental conditions, socioeconomic inequalities and access to prevention and early diagnosis. GLOBOCAN 2022 estimated 117,620 new cancer cases and 56,719 cancer deaths in Colombia, with breast, prostate, colorectal, stomach and lung cancers accounting for a substantial proportion of incident disease (IARC, 2024). Colombia's cancer burden therefore cannot be explained by a single hazard. Instead, cancer risk emerges from interacting behavioural, infectious, environmental, occupational, genetic, demographic and health-system determinants. This narrative review examines the major cancer hazards relevant to Colombia, including tobacco smoking and second-hand smoke, alcohol consumption, excess body weight and physical inactivity, dietary patterns, human papillomavirus (HPV), Helicobacter pylori, hepatitis B and C viruses, occupational carcinogens, air pollution, ultraviolet radiation, environmental contamination, and social inequalities affecting exposure and access to prevention. Particular attention is given to cervical and gastric cancers, which retain important links to infectious exposures, and to breast, prostate, colorectal and lung cancers, which reflect combinations of age, lifestyle, tobacco exposure, metabolic risk and health-system factors. The review also considers Colombia's changing demographic structure, regional heterogeneity, urbanization and unequal distribution of health resources. Evidence indicates substantial opportunities for prevention through tobacco control, vaccination, infection control, healthy-weight strategies, occupational protection, reduction of hazardous environmental exposures, cancer screening and timely diagnosis. A coordinated national approach should integrate population prevention with risk-based interventions, strengthen surveillance and registries, reduce regional inequalities, and improve access to evidence-based screening and treatment. The article concludes that Colombia's cancer hazards are multidimensional and require an integrated prevention framework linking health policy, environmental regulation, occupational safety, primary care and cancer control.
Keywords:cancer hazards; Colombia; cancer prevention; risk factors; environmental exposure; occupational exposure; tobacco; HPV; Helicobacter pylori; obesity; air pollution; cancer epidemiology; screening