Lifestyle choices ‘fuelling cancer rates’

Lifestyle choices are leading to an increase in a number of cancers including mouth, skin and kidney cancer, latest statistics have shown.

Obesity, regularly drinking alcohol, smoking and overexposure to the sun have contributed to more newly diagnosed cases of some cancers in the past ten years.

Cancer Research UK, which published the statistics along with the United Kingdom Association of Cancer Registries (UKACR), has said that about half of all cancers could be prevented by a change in lifestyles.

Cases of malignant melanoma – the most dangerous form of skin cancer – have risen by 43 per cent in the last decade, with rates tripling in men during this time.

Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s director of health information, said that heavy exposure to the sun accounts for the vast majority of these cases.

“We’re very concerned that cases of malignant melanoma are spiralling,” she said.

“Most cases of this disease could be prevented if people protected themselves in the sun and took care not to burn.”

Mouth cancer rates saw increases of nearly a quarter, due in part to people smoking or chewing tobacco and regularly drinking alcohol.

And kidney cancer is also on the rise, with 14 per cent more cases diagnosed in the past ten years. This increase has been attributed to smoking and a rise in obesity. Being dangerously overweight also raises the chance of a woman developing womb cancer.