Obesity blamed for 50pc rise in womb cancer over two decades

WOMB cancer rates have risen by more than a half in two decades, driven by Britain’s obesity crisis, experts have warned.

Official figures show that more than 9,000 women are being diagnosed with the disease every year in the UK, making it the fourth most common form of cancer in females.

Scientists suggested a growing weight problem is the key factor behind alarming rises in rates of the cancer.

Obesity is linked to 10 common cancers, including breast, kidney, prostate and bowel.

But it is the main, potentially avoidable, risk factor for womb cancer, with evidence that extra fat in the body raises the risk by producing hormones and growth factors that encourage cells to divide.

Lack of exercise and taking hormone replacement therapy have been identified as lesser avoidable risks.

Over the past two decades, obesity levels among women in Britain have risen from 17 per cent to 25 per cent, with two in three women classed as overweight or obese. Current trends suggest almost three in four adults will be overweight or obese by 2035.

The figures from Cancer Research UK show 9,022 women are now diag- nosed with womb cancer, compared with 4,811 new cases a year 20 years ago. Two decades ago, around 19 women in every 100,000 developed womb cancer in the UK, which has risen to 29 women in every 100,000 in latest figures.

Survival rates have improved, thanks to breakthroughs in treatment, but the disease still kills around 2,000 women in Britain every year.

Prof Jonathan Ledermann, the direc- tor of the Cancer Research UK and UCL Cancer Trials Centre, said: “It’s worrying that womb cancer cases are going up so sharply. We don’t know all the reasons why. But we do know that about a third of cases are linked to being overweight, so it’s no surprise to see the increases in womb cancer cases echo rising obesity levels.

Symptoms of womb cancer include abnormal vaginal bleeding (particularly in post-menopausal women), blood in the urine and abdominal pain. If the disease is caught early, most women can be treated with a hysterectomy.