7 December 2011
The British Lung Foundation (BLF) welcomes research released today by Cancer Research UK which shows that more than 100,000 cancers – equivalent to one third of all those diagnosed in the UK each year – are being caused by smoking, unhealthy diets, alcohol and excess weight.
This new review of cancer and lifestyle in the UK is the most comprehensive undertaken to date and is published today in a supplement to the British Journal of Cancer.
Smoking is far and away the most important lifestyle factor causing 23 per cent of cancers in men and 15.6 per cent in women (nearly one in five cancers).
Professor Stephen Spiro, Honorary Medical Advisor at British Lung Foundation said:
“This research shows that tobacco is unsurprisingly still the prime culprit as a risk factor for cancer in this country. Around 90 per cent of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking, but the best way to reverse this trend is to adopt healthier lifestyle choices, with giving up smoking being the priority, or simply never starting.”
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Read Cancer Research UK report
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