A University of Otago study has found that people with cancer are significantly more likely to have cancer than other members of the population.

The research, ‘Prevalence of cancer in cancer-afflicted individuals’, highlighted the importance of not having cancer in avoiding the risks presented by cancer.

“100 per cent of people with cancer are more than likely to have cancer,” explained the study’s author Jane Hockley. “This contrasts with the rest of the population, who do not have cancer.”

The study included 200 participants, half of whom had cancer and half of whom did not.

Hockley said that cancer deaths were experienced only by those participants who had cancer.

“Certainly, the report confirms that the best way to avoid dying from cancer is to not have it in the first place,” she said.

The study was welcomed by a spokesperson for the Cancer Society, who said the best way to avoid cancer was to “not be born,” as detailed in their recent report ‘Why everything causes cancer, and how you should avoid it.’

Hockley says she will next be conducting a study in which free range and cage eggs are raced against each other to see which is faster.

In an unrelated development, the Paramount Pictures film Pain & Gain was also released today, making today a day on which at least two things were released.

Paramount Pictures did not sponsor this news item, but its author would still appreciate some money.