(NaturalNews) Second cancers are on the rise in the United States, according to a new study, which found that one in five new cases involve someone who has had the disease before. The study also found that second cancers, which don’t include reoccurring cancers, but are a completely new type of cancer, have increased 300 percent since the 1970s.

First-time cancers have also spiked, increasing 70 percent in the same time frame.

The Western world of medicine is going with their usual explanation, or rather lack thereof, claiming that they are unaware of the reason for the surge but pointing to the fact that people are living longer and are therefore more at risk for the disease.

But living into your 80s and 90s shouldn’t guarantee that you’ll get cancer.

While genetics are a factor, other influences such as your environment, the food you eat, the water you drink, the air you breathe, the vaccines you inject and even the kind of medical treatment you receive may contribute much more than your age when it comes to determining your risk for cancer.

Emerging research continues to show that pesticides, heavy metals and hormone mimickers such as BPA and BPS, as well as other environmental contaminants, greatly influence the risk of developing cancer.

For those who are unfortunate enough to receive a second cancer diagnosis, the treatment you received for your first cancer may ultimately be to blame.

Are cancer treatments causing more cancer?

A document^[PDF] by the American Cancer Society titled “Second Cancers in Adults” admits that second cancers may be caused by cancer treatment.

“Radiation therapy was recognized as a potential cause of cancer many years ago,” according to the ACS, which also admits that most types of leukemia, including acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), can all be caused by radiation.

Most cancers caused by radiation therapy develop within just a few years of being irradiated, with the disease peaking at five to nine years following exposure.

Similarly, chemotherapy drugs have also been linked to different kinds of second cancers, with the most common being myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and AML; ALL has also been linked to these cancer drugs.

Cancer drugs cause at least 40,000 cases of new cancer each year in the U.S.

To help put that into perspective, about 13,000 people are diagnosed each year with MDS.

Aside from radiation and chemotherapy, other causes include toxins present in tobacco smoke, and high levels of industrial-type chemicals such as benzene, a carcinogenic petrochemical that is widely used in plastics, synthetic fibers, rubber lubricants, resins, dyes, detergents, drugs and pesticides.

Nearly another 20,000 people are diagnosed annually with AML, with more than half of those cases ending in death, and approximately 6,000 people are diagnosed with ALL each year.

This means that at least 40,000 cancer occurrences may be directly attributed to cancer drugs.

Determining how many people perish from cancer drugs is extremely difficult, as most of the deaths are recorded as being from cancer, and not the treatment.

Remember, the cancer industry is one of the world’s most lucrative businesses, generating $100 billion last year. Those profits are expected to increase at about 8 percent each year over the next three years as more and more Americans will be diagnosed and treated for cancer.