Alcohol and obesity warning as grim UK toll of cancers revealed

Alcohol and obesity are helping fuel both types of disease, with many of these cancer cases preventable if people were healthier.

A league table of European cancer rates of the oesophagus show about 6.4 out of every 100,000 people develop oesophageal cancer in the UK every year.

This is almost double the European average of 3.3 and higher than Ireland, which came in second place (5.9), and the Netherlands in third (5.8).

France had a figure of just 3.9 while the rate in Spain was 2.8.

Cyprus’s rate of 0.5 is the lowest in Europe while Mongolia has the highest rate in the world (18.7).

The oesophagus is part of the body’s digestive system and is the tube which links the back of the mouth to the stomach.

The UK’s high rate is partly due to high levels of alcohol consumption and obesity – known risk factors for the disease.

The league table was compiled by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) using World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates.

Around 8,000 oesophageal cancer cases are diagnosed in the UK each year and the disease kills more than 7,000.

Just 8 per cent of men and women are still alive five years after diagnosis.

Dr Rachel Thompson, deputy head of science for the WCRF, said: “The fact that the UK has the highest rate of oesophageal cancer in Europe is a real concern because it is a type of cancer that has a particularly low survival rate.

“It is also a particularly preventable type of cancer and most oesophageal cases in the UK could be prevented through a healthy diet, limiting alcohol consumption, maintaining a healthy weight and not smoking.

“The problem is that we have the highest obesity rate in Europe and we drink more alcohol than the European average.

“This means that thousands of people every year are being diagnosed with an oesophageal cancer that could have been prevented.

“The good news is that not smoking, maintaining a healthy weight, cutting down on alcohol and eating more of a variety of fruits and vegetables will not just reduce your risk of oesophageal cancer.

“It will also reduce your risk of other types of cancer, as well as being good for health generally.”

The second set of new statistics, from the British Liver Trust, shows that since 1997 liver cancer deaths have risen by 74 per cent in England and Wales.

Both Scotland and Northern Ireland are also experiencing increasing numbers of deaths from liver cancer.

Andrew Langford, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said: “Liver disease seems to be the poor relation to the other big killers yet is the only health problem out of the big five showing an increasing trend.

“The situation is now at breaking point and we need to see direct action to prevent the daily death rate from liver cancer increasing.”

Liver disease is influenced by obesity and alcohol but can also result from hepatitis.

Mr Langford said: “We are still awaiting the National Liver Disease Strategy, our Government-led alcohol policies are a joke and despite nearly every other developed nation having universal vaccination for hepatitis B we are still debating whether we should. While this debate continues many are being infected and for some this will lead to them dying of liver cancer.”

The figures show that 1,968 men and 1,371 women died from liver cancer in England and Wales in 2010, as did 230 men and 132 women in Scotland.