Put your cancer smarts to the test

Cancer is everywhere. Still, researchers and scientists and doctors don't fully understand the disease. Either does the average American. When the American Cancer Society put 1,000 people to the test, these four questions stumped many respondents. Sixty-eight percent got the first one wrong.

Now it's your turn. Which of the following are true?

1. The risk of dying from cancer is increasing in the U.S.

2. Your risk of lung cancer is greater if you live in a polluted city than if you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day.

3. Some injuries can cause cancer later in life.

4. Some or all of the following cause cancer: cell phones, deodorant, antiperspirant, under-wire bras.

None are true. First, the survival rate -- not the death rate -- for all cancers combined is increasing and has been for the past 30 years. Second, smoking and secondhand smoke are believed to cause about 87 percent of lung cancers. Third, the injury myth is nearly 100 years old. Fourth, there's no evidence that cell phones, deodorant, antiperspirant, or under-wire bras cause cancer. But being overweight or obese, eating a fatty diet, and smoking do.