Alcohol-related cancer cases on rise in region

THE NUMBER of alcohol-related cancers diagnosed has risen in Kirklees, new figures reveal.
Alcohol-related cancers affect men more in Kirklees.Alcohol-related cancers affect men more in Kirklees.
Alcohol-related cancers affect men more in Kirklees.

Health experts say alcohol increases the risk of diseases such as liver, colorectal, breast or oral cancer even if it’s consumed in small amounts.

New NHS data shows that 425 people had some kind of cancer linked to drinking between 2015 and 2017 – 29% more than ten years ago.

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That’s a rate of 36 cases per every 100,000 people aged 16 or over living in the area.

Alcohol-related cancers affect men more in Kirklees – 39 per every 100,000 men aged 16 or over were affected, while it was 34 per every 100,000 women.

Katie Patrick, Cancer Research UK’s health information officer, said drinking alcohol increases the risk of cancer whether it is consumed all in one go or spread throughout the week.

She said: “We need to keep raising awareness of the link between alcohol and cancer, so to give us a helping hand, all alcohol labelling should highlight it.”

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Professor Roger Williams, director of the Institute of Hepatology, said the statistics for England are “worrying” and proposed setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol to curb drinking.

He said: “Setting a minimum alcohol price is a highly effective way of dealing with the problem. In Canada, they had a 14% drop in emergency admissions and 8% drop in mortality in the first 12 months after setting this minimum.”