Weight link to 22,000 cancer cases every year

MORE than 22,000 cases of ­cancer could be prevented in the UK every year if everyone was a healthy weight, researchers claim.

They found 63 per cent of the population is overweight or obese – one of the highest ­percentages in Europe – increasing the risk of cancers of the pancreas, breast, bowel, oesophagus, kidney, womb and gall bladder.

The World Cancer Research Fund said 18 per cent of the 123,000 weight-related cancer cases in the UK could be prevented each year. Its Continuous Update Project (CUP) found that 1,257 cases of pancreatic cancer could be prevented annually if patients were a healthy weight.

Professor Alan Jackson, chairman of the CUP panel and professor of human nutrition at the University of Southampton, said: “A significant number of cancer cases could be prevented by ­people maintaining a healthy body weight. By keeping body fat low, a lot of people will avoid getting cancer in the first place – forestalling the pain and anguish associated with the ­disease.

“The CUP report looks specifically at pancreatic cancer, the fifth most common cause of cancer death in the UK. Fewer than one in five patients survive the first year after diagnosis but we found 15 per cent of new cases could be avoided every year by keeping body weight within the healthy range.”