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Monday, January 24, 2011

Alcohol and poor diet linked to UK breast cancer rates

Women in Britain are more likely to be be diagnosed with breast cancer than those in most other developed countries because of their unhealthy lifestyles, according to a new study.
Analysis of data collected by the respected World Health Organisation shows Britain has higher rates of the potentially fatal disease than the USA, Australia, Germany and Spain.

In only 10 of the 50 countries assessed by the researchers do women have a higher chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer than those in the UK.

The experts said that many of the 46,000 breast cancer cases in the UK each year could be avoided if British women drank less, ate more healthily or took more exercise.


More than a quarter of women who develop the disease in Britain die from it, as survival rates have remained low despite record investment in the NHS under Labour.

Professor Martin Wiseman, medical and scientific adviser for the World Cancer Research Fund, which compiled the new study, said: “We know that people in high-income countries are more likely to be overweight, to drink a lot of alcohol and to be inactive.

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