Obesity epidemic ‘will cause more cancer’

New warnings are being made that a rise in obesity levels will result in an increased number of cancer cases in the UK by the end of the decade.

Cancer Research UK is warning that by 2010 the UK could see as many as 12,000 cases of weight-related cancer diagnosed every year, prompting fresh concerns over the ongoing obesity epidemic.

If predictions are accurate, the increase in cancer diagnoses linked to obesity would be some 1,500 more than current figures.

It is thought that after smoking, excessive weight is one of the leading preventable causes of cancer. Experts have found that excess weight is responsible for almost four per cent of all cancer cases.

“It is now well established that being overweight increases the risk of developing several types of cancer,” explained Tim Key, Cancer Research UK epidemiologist. “The effects on breast and womb cancer are almost certainly due to the increased production of the hormone oestrogen in the fatty tissue.

“We are less sure of the precise mechanisms in other obesity related cancers but we can confidently predict that the number of these cases will increase unless the rise in obesity in Britain can be reversed.”

Figures indicate that some 14 million Brits will be classified as obese within four years, with related medical costs of somewhere in the region of ?8 billion each year.