Expert warns we are heading for a cancer 'explosion' within 3 years

Feb 8 2009

A British cancer expert has warned that the current generation of obese children herald a cancer 'explosion' by the year 2012.

The president of the European Society for Paediatric Oncology, Professor Kathy Pritchard-Jones has warned that western countries should prepare for an "explosion" of weight-related cancers and action needs to be taken now.

Experts predict that by 2012 as many as 1 million children in England alone will be obese and they say the current generation of children can expect a far higher risk of cancer later in life due to their unhealthy habits.

Worldwide an estimated 300 million adults worldwide are currently clinically obese and Professor Pritchard-Jones, a leading childhood cancer specialist based at the Institute for Cancer Research in Sutton, Surrey, made her remarks for World Cancer Day.

Professor Pritchard-Jones says that while children with poor lifestyles were no more likely to suffer from cancers in childhood, they were storing up trouble for later life and childhood is the time when the habits of a lifetime are established.

She says if you want healthy adults you have to start by making healthy children and if something is not done about tackling how much exercise young people do and their diet and weight, another explosion of cancers will result, to which unhealthy lifestyles will be a significant, contributory factor.

Dietary factors, physical inactivity, overweight and obesity are estimated to account for approximately 30% of cancers in Western countries, making diet and physical activity second only to tobacco as a preventable cause of cancer.

According to the World Health Organization, one billion adults are overweight, and at least 300 million of these are clinically obese - the International Obesity Taskforce says one in ten school age children is overweight, and about 30 to 45 million worldwide are obese.

Professor Pritchard-Jones says while the western world has just started to make an impact on smoking-related cancer, this would be cancelled out by the rise in obesity related illness.

Professor Pritchard-Jones has called on families, health professionals, teachers and governments to do more to promote health and prevent cancer by encouraging children to lead healthy, energy-balanced lifestyles, which will help to reduce their risk of cancer in later life and she hopes World Cancer Day will encourage governments and policy makers to examine their own populations, and stimulate them into action.