Obesity 'causes one in five cancer deaths'

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/may/29/obesity-causes-one-in-five-cancer-deaths

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Tackling obesity is a major priority, the UK government has said, as a report warns that it is the cause of one in five cancer deaths.

At the world’s biggest conference on cancer, it was claimed that obesity was killing tens of thousands of people a year in Britain and it is about to replace tobacco as the leading preventable cause of cancer in the west, according to a report in the Times.

Jennifer Ligibel of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University told the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago: “The average weight of our citizens is increasing dramatically. We’ve really got a critical mass of evidence where we see this relationship: the heavier people are more at risk.

“I think people are aware that being overweight increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes but not that it increases the risk of cancer and their risk of dying from cancer. It’s the case with breast cancer, prostate cancer, cancer of the colon and all the gynaecological cancers.”

Smoking is thought to be responsible for a quarter of Britain’s 160,000 annual cancer deaths and Ligibel said obesity could surpass that figure in 10 to 15 years as the population gets fatter while giving up cigarettes.

A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “The secretary of state has already mentioned that tackling obesity and diabetes will be one of his major priorities for the new government term.”