Title: Why are cancer rates increasing? - Cancer Research UK - Cancer news
Headings: Why are cancer rates increasing?
Why are cancer rates increasing?
What’s the cancer rate in the UK?
Why cancer rates are rising
Specific cancers, specific reasons
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Cancer survival is increasing too
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Content: And the researchers behind these new statistics reckon that about two-thirds of the increase is due to the fact we’re living longer. The rest, they think, is caused by changes in cancer rates across different age groups. And when you look at these changes in detail, you can see patterns reflected in how we live our lives, clearly showing how important an impact our lifestyle can have. For example, more and more people are becoming overweight and obese in the UK, which raises the risk of developing 13 different cancers. And our culture of sunbathing and using sunbeds is contributing to rising rates of melanoma skin cancer. Changes in alcohol consumption play an important role too. In women, breast screening has meant we’re detecting more cancers and finding them at a younger age (although some of this may also be because of ‘overdiagnosis’ – something we discuss at length in this blog post ). But the increase in breast cancer rates is also down to changes in our lifestyles: women have fewer babies later, and breastfeed less. In men, things are changing too: