BRITAIN’S obesity crisis has been dubbed “the new smoking” by health chiefs — who warn it will trigger an extra 360,000 cancer cases in ten years.
The alert from NHS boss Simon Stevens comes as doctors claim the growing epidemic could soon reverse medical gains made on the disease.
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NHS experts calculate that obesity will be responsible for 36,800 new cancer diagnoses per year by 2030 — more than 100 per day.
That marks a rise of 62 per cent on the 2015 figure of 22,761 Brits who developed the disease because of their excessive weight.
The figure is predicted to rise to 41,000 cases annually by 2035, a near doubling of cases over two decades.
Campaigners said that should be a wake-up call.
And Simon said: “Many people don’t yet realise that obesity causes cancer.
“Obesity is the new smoking and if we continue to pile on the pounds, we’re heading for thousands more avoidable cancer deaths every year.”
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Nearly 30 per cent of Brits are obese, which increases the risk of bowel, breast, womb and kidney cancer.
Simon, speaking at the annual American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, also called for families, business and government to play their part in tackling obesity.
Dr Jennifer Ligibel, of Harvard, will today warn that every 11lb in weight gain increases the risk of breast cancer by up to eight per cent.
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