 Hello, I am Dr. Kakoli Lhakar, Kansal Chen medical oncologist in Manipal Hospital, Bangalore. The risk factors can be divided into hereditary and sporadic. 20% of all colon cancers are due to hereditary or familial reasons. And out of this, the most common syndromes are Lynch syndrome and FAP or familial adenometous polyposis. In these cases, colon cancer can occur at a very early age, even in 20-25 years of age. However, most of the common cancers are sporadic in nature, which means that there is no familial cause. So, what are the risk factors? Colon cancer is a lifestyle disease. The common risk factors of colon cancer are excessive consumption of red meat and processed meat, smoking, alcohol consumption in excessive amount, obesity, not maintaining a healthy body weight, lack of physical exercise. All these factors can contribute to colon cancer. Also, an entity called inflammatory bowel disease, which consists of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is known to increase the risk of colon cancer. So, these are the most common risk factors of colon cancer. It has been shown that consumption of dietary fiber, fish and legumes can decrease the risk of colon cancer. Also, colon cancer is also associated with diabetes mellitus, especially uncontrolled diabetes mellitus, which is another risk factor.