“There is a sentence "The key to avoiding cancer is to have an overall healthy lifestyle." Can I say "The key to avoid cancer is to have an overall healthy lifestyle."?”

Chen Wenyu

In the phrase "The key to ..." the word 'to' is a preposition. It's not part of a verb infinitive.

Prepositions are followed by nouns. Therefore is 'avoid' possible or must it be 'avoiding'?

Today Li and Callum talk about nouns, verbs and gerunds to help answer this question.