RCPCH responds to CRUK obesity campaign launch

A new report launched today by Cancer Research UK reveals that obesity is set to overtake smoking as the biggest preventable cause of cancer among UK women in 25 years' time. RCPCH responds.

These new projections calculate that by 2035 10% of cancers in women (around 25,000 cases) could be caused by smoking and nine percent (around 23,000 cases) by excess weight. If trends continue as projected, it is believed that excess weight will cause more cases of cancer than smoking in women by 2043.

Cancer Research UK are today launching a UK-wide campaign to increase awareness that obesity is a cause of cancer.

In response to the launch of this campaign, Dr Max Davie, Officer for Health Promotion for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) said:

“We know that a child is more likely to become overweight or obese if a parent is overweight or obese, and as Cancer Research UK say today, this increases their risk of cancer. Chapter two of the Government’s childhood obesity plan rightly focuses on prevention and if proposals are implemented, this plan will pave the way to better child health."

"However, in the meantime, we still require investment in services to treat those children who are already overweight or obese. Only with this two pronged approach will we prevent the next generation of obese children and reduce the likelihood of people who are overweight or obese now, going on to develop cancer.”