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Modern living to blame for cancer epidemic |
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Binge drinking, reckless sunbathing and overeating are fuelling a massive rise in cancer, experts warn. In a shocking report, they have laid bare the deadly consequences of increasingly hedonistic modern lifestyles. Cases of mouth cancer, which is associated with smoking and drinking, have increased by almost a quarter. Malignant melanoma - the most dangerous form of skin cancer - is up by 43 per cent in ten years as warnings to stay out of the sun are ignored. Kidney cancer, which is much more common in smokers and the overweight, is also on the rise, the report shows. Rates of another disease linked to obesity, womb cancer, went up by a fifth.
Cancer Research UK, which compiled the figures, said up to half of all
deaths from the disease could be avoided by the use of common sense.
Lucy Morrish, of the charity, said: "While incidence rates for some
cancers have fallen over the past decade, others are rising and many of
these cases could be prevented if people avoided excessive sun
exposure, smoking and obesity and limited their alcohol intake."
The charity highlighted as especially worrying the 21 per cent rise in
womb cancer from 5,018 cases ten years ago to 6,438 today. Obese and
overweight women are twice as likely to develop the disease as those of
healthy weight. This is blamed on higher than normal levels of the
female hormone oestrogen in the bodies of postmenopausal women who are
overweight. Obesity and smoking also increase the risk of kidney
cancer, which was found to be up 14 per cent.
Colin Waine said: "These figures just go to show the wide-reaching
ramifications of obesity, which go way beyond diabetes, heart disease
and stroke to several site pecific cancers. As well as womb cancer,
obesity has been linked to postmenopausal breast cancer, colonic
cancer, bile duct cancer and pancreatic cancer. These figures can only
get worse if we fail to halt the obesity epidemic."
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