The World Cancer Research Fund has issued advice on how to prevent cancer as new data shows a 3.7% rise in women being diagnosed while cases in men remain stable
More women are being diagnosed with cancer in Britain.
Latest annual data shows there were 6,800 more cases in women during 2021 than the previous year data was collected in 2019. The World Cancer Research Fund said this was a 3.7% rise in women while cases in men remained stable.
Experts suspect it is because smoking rates started to reduce earlier in men than in women decades ago, while exercise and diet may also be factors. Data collated from the four UK nations shows 200,870 men were diagnosed in 2021, up 0.2% from 200,386 in 2019. There were 194,311 cases in women, up from 187,434.
Dr Vanessa Gordon-Dseagu, research manager at the World Cancer Research Fund, said: “It is likely that any changes in the number of new cases are partially explained by behaviour. This will be particularly true for those cancers for which there is strong evidence that behaviour increases risk. For example, smoking increasing lung cancer risk or processed meat and alcohol increasing bowel cancer risk.”
Breast cancer remains the most common type of cancer in the UK with 59,115 new cases in 2021. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men with 51,575 new cases in 2021 – around a quarter of all cancers in men. Overall there was an increase of 2% in UK cancers diagnosed which is partially explained by people living longer. The difference between new cases in men and women each year fell from 12,900 in 2019 to 6,500 in 2021.
Previous research has suggested 40% of cancers – around 158,000 cancer cases in the UK – could be prevented each year in Britain by people living healthier lifestyles.
Dr Gordon-Dseagu said: “While the total number of cancers is still higher among men than women, the latest increases among women, and decreases among men, suggest that this difference is declining quite rapidly. Following WCRF’s Cancer Prevention Recommendations can help people reduce their cancer risk.”
The World Cancer Research Fund’s Cancer Prevention Recommendations are as follows:
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Be a healthy weight
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Be physically active
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Eat wholegrains, vegetables, fruit and beans
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Limit ‘fast foods’
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Limit red and processed meat
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Limit sugar sweetened drinks
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Limit alcohol consumption
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Do not use supplements for cancer prevention
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For mothers: breastfeed your baby, if you can
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After a cancer diagnosis, follow our Recommendations, if you can
It adds that not smoking and staying safe in the sun are also important to reduce cancer risk.
It comes after the Mirror reported a new Lancet study showed rates of bowel cancer in young people are rising more sharply in England than in many other countries around the world. The cancer, which causes common symptoms and so is hard to diagnose, now kills almost 17,000 Brits each year and is increasing in the under 50s.
Early onset bowel cancer in those aged 25 to 49 is increasing globally, but England is among the countries with the biggest rise, averaging a 3.6% increase every year, researchers calculated. Studies are ongoing to work out why more younger people are developing bowel cancer, but experts believe poor diet, more ultra-processed foods, obesity and a lack of exercise are playing a role.
The disease is the third most common cancer in the UK and is the same type that killed TV presenter Dame Deborah James at age 40 in 2022.
Young women were found to have faster increases in early bowel cancer rates than men in England and Scotland. In contrast to younger adults, rates of bowel cancer in older adults are falling in many countries including England due to the effectiveness of cancer screening programmes.
