Larger women risk womb cancer

A British charity has part-funded research which suggests that weight gain increases a woman’s risk of womb cancer.

Cancer Research UK says that the dramatic increase in cases of womb cancer could be linked to rising obesity levels in Britain.  Dr Lesley Walker, from the charity said, “According to the National Sizing Survey conducted in 2004 the average British woman now has a 34in waist, which is over 6ins bigger than the average size of a woman in the 1950s, when it was 27.5ins. Women are larger than they were when they existed on a wartime diet and were generally more active and this is having serious consequences.â€?

The international research reveals that women with a waist of over 34 inches are more likely to develop womb cancer than those who are slimmer.  The study of 223,000 women worldwide suggests that those with a waist under 31 inches have half the risk of womb cancer than their obese counterparts. The research also found that the link between womb cancer and weight was more pronounced in postmenopausal women and in those who had never used HRT or the pill.  

More than 6,000 women in the UK are diagnosed with womb cancer annually and the disease kills around a 1,000 women each year.

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