Cancer overtakes heart disease for first time as biggest killer of men

Cancer has overtaken heart disease for the first time to become the single biggest killer of men in the UK, figures published yesterday suggested.

Cancer has overtaken heart disease for the first time to become the single biggest killer of men in the UK, figures published yesterday suggested.

While male mortality from heart disease has fallen by 30 per cent in a decade, male cancer deaths have fallen by only 15 per cent, and the number of men killed by some forms of cancer has risen. Experts said that although men had responded to messages about heart disease prevention, they were still failing to heed the warnings on cancer.

Obesity is now becoming a significant cause of cancer in men – one in five men is now classed as overweight, and one in 10 cancers is linked to it. In 2001, the most recent year for which figures are available, 79,781 men died from cancer and 79,466 from heart disease.

Better and quicker treatment of heart attacks and the emergence of new drugs have contributed to the success in reducing heart disease deaths. But the reluctance of men to see a doctor and the slow process of developing new drugs are hampering efforts to make the same inroads with cancer.

The results were released by the charity Cancer Research UK as it launched a month-long campaign to raise awareness.

Rates of oesophageal cancer have increased by 8 per cent in the past 10 years. It is now the fourth most common cancer in men, after cancers of the lung, bowel and prostate.

Professor Nick Day, chairman of Cancer Research UK's committee on cancer prevention, said: "Oesophageal cancer is related to drinking and obesity, and if two things have been getting worse in recent years, it is these."