Category Archives: Obesity and bodyweight

News digest – bowel cancer, kidney cancer, booze, boost for drug development, and more

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All the news in one place

Another week has flown by, and yet more interesting cancer research was in the news, both from our own scientists and from research groups around the world.

We’ve summarised the big stories of the week below.

Click on the links for full coverage.

There were a few big stats stories out this week:

  • On Monday, new analysis showed that nearly 10 per cent of bowel cancer patients die within a month of diagnosis. And of these, over half are over 80 years old, and six in 10 are diagnosed following an emergency admission to hospital. This suggests that the public, especially the elderly, may not be aware of bowel cancer’s warning signs.
  • Then yesterday, we released new figures showing that the number of kidney cancers diagnosed each year in Great Britain has risen over 9,000 for the first time. Experts think that obesity is one of the key factors behind this staggering 135 per cent rise over the past 35 years.

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Healthy Resolutions 2012 – what’s new?

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Healthy living is worth it

It’s mid-January, and while many resolutions will still be going strong, some may have already fallen by the wayside. But it’s worth sticking to those healthy plans. Living a healthy life can make you feel more energetic and relaxed, and can reduce the risk of developing cancer.

As ever, the past year’s been a busy one in the field of lifestyle and cancer prevention. In this post we take a look back over the year and pick out some of the exciting developments in research, policy and campaigns.

Some findings have hinted at new information, whilst others have strengthened our existing knowledge. And others have not so much found an answer, as posed new questions.

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The causes of cancer you can control

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Can cancer be prevented? Decades of research have shown that a person’s chances of getting cancer depends on a mishmash of their genes and their environment, but also certain aspects of their lives, many of which they can control.

Today saw the publication of a landmark Cancer Research UK-funded review by Professor Max Parkin, outlining the latest evidence behind the preventable causes of UK cancers.

As our press release says, these latest calculations, based on predicted cases  for 2010, show that smoking, diet, alcohol and obesity are behind more than 100,000 cancers. This is equivalent to one third of all cancers diagnosed in the UK each year.

And this figure further increases to around 134,000 when taking into account all 14 lifestyle and environmental risk factors analysed in this study.

There’s more in-depth information about the statistics on our website, and our healthy living pages explain the take-home messages from the research.

But to help make sense of the vast quantity of information contained in the 91-page report, we’ve also put together a graphic that shows the proportion of cancers that can be prevented through lifestyle changes. It’s worth spending a minute or so looking at the key to understand how to interpret the graphic (which you can download as a larger PDF version).

Attributable risk infographic

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UN meeting on non-communicable diseases was only a partial success

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The meeting was a huge opportunity

‘A limited success’ is how we’d best describe September’s United Nations high-level meeting in New York, which gathered to discuss non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

This was only the second ever meeting of its kind, bringing together heads of state and health leaders from around the world. The first meeting was back in 2001, and focused on HIV/ AIDS. With NCDs set to cause up to two-thirds of all worldwide deaths over the next 25 years, it was agreed that they too need global action. Back in August we discussed exactly why this summit was too important an opportunity to miss.

But now, in the aftermath, we think the meeting could have gone much further, and we have some real issues of concern.
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Fighting ‘active fat’

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Following on from Yinka’s post on the growing issues of obesity in the UK, this week we’re launching our Active Fat  campaign for the second year running.  We’ve joined forces with British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK to work together on this campaign, and this year we’re trying to encourage men over 40 to measure their waist.

Last year we got the message out about what ‘active fat’ is and let people know about the dangers of a ‘spare tyre’. And because that was successful, we’re coming together once more to get men to take action.

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Obesity – a big problem

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Measuring a waistline

The UK has a growing weight problem

Hardly a week goes by without obesity hitting the headlines. Earlier this month for example, TV chef Jamie Oliver joined a coalition of health experts in calling for global action to tackle the obesity epidemic.

Also in the past couple of weeks, McDonalds announced it’d be calorie-labelling all its products in line with the government’s Responsibility Deal, and the Lancet medical journal published research looking at WeightWatchers’ effectiveness.

You could be forgiven for being fed up of hearing about the weight problem. Does it really matter if the UK’s population is getting bigger?

Unfortunately, when it comes to health, and the personal and societal cost of the diseases linked with being overweight and obesity – including cancer – the answer is definitively yes.

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Podcast: Cracking the cancer code, rising rates, and a sponge on a string

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Click on the image to listen to the latest podcast

In this month’s podcast, we take a look at new statistics showing that cancer rates are rising alarmingly in middle-aged people, and bowel cancer risk has doubled for men.

Plus we announce a new project aimed at cracking the cancer code, and investigate why weight has a hefty impact on cancer-causing hormones in older women. And we find out how a clever sponge on a string could help oesophageal cancer screening.

Listen now through the player below:

Or click here to download the podcast as an mp3.

Also, the podcast is available on iTunes to subscribe and download for free.

Alternatively, go to the main podcast page on our website, where you can hear the show directly through our own Flash player. And there’s also a full transcript of the podcast available here.

We hope you enjoy it – please do let us know what you think of the podcast in the comments below, or email us at podcast@cancer.org.uk.

Kat