Cancer is more likely the fault of a patient’s own reckless lifestyle and poor environment than bad DNA, according to findings published Wednesday by Stony Brook University researchers.

Their study, in the journal Nature, rebuts a celebrated Johns Hopkins University paper published earlier this year that attributed cancer to genetics and “bad luck.”

“External factors can influence the rate of stem-cell division and the number of mutations,” said Dr. Yousef Hannun, director of the Stony Brook Cancer Center.

“These results are important for strategizing cancer prevention, research and public health.”

Stony Brook researchers said that smoking, diet, weight, drinking and environmental conditions account for between 70 and 90 percent of gene mutations that make cancerous tumors.

“Many scientists argued against the ‘bad luck’ or ‘random mutation’ theory of cancer, but provided no alternative analysis to quantify the contribution of external risk factors,” said lead author Song Wu, an assistant professor at Stony Brook’s Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics.

“Our paper provides an alternative analysis.”