Smoking-related cancers have hit a record high with 160 people diagnosed every day, new figures show.
According to an analysis by Cancer Research UK, there has been a 17 per cent rise in cases over the past two decades, with liver, throat and kidney cancers doubling in that time.
Although smoking rates are falling, the growing population means there are still around 6.4 million smokers in the UK.
The charity is calling on the new government to push forward the Conservatives’ Tobacco and E-Cigarettes Bill and reintroduce it in the King’s first speech later this month.
Tobacco is known to cause 16 different types of cancer, with lung cancer alone causing 33,000 cases a year.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2023 health report showed that 12.7 per cent of Britons aged 15 and over smoke cigarettes daily, a figure much higher than in the United States and New Zealand.
It would have made it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born after January 2009, thereby preventing future generations from smoking.
Dr Ian Walker, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of policy, said: ‘Every hour, six families’ lives are changed forever by a disease that could have been prevented.
‘Smoking is an exceptionally toxic consumer product and has no place in our future.
‘Raising the age of sale of tobacco products will be one of the biggest public health interventions in living memory and will make the UK a world leader.
“It is vital that this Bill is reintroduced in the King’s Speech, passed and fully implemented so that the impact of smoking is consigned to the history books.”
The charity’s data shows that by 2023 there were around 57,600 diagnoses of cancers caused by smoking, compared with 49,325 in 2003.
Tobacco is known to cause 16 different types of cancer, with lung cancer alone causing 33,000 cases a year.
For the first time, breast cancer cases have been included in the analysis following growing scientific evidence of its relationship with smoking.
Figures from previous years have been adjusted to reflect this, with 2,200 cases of breast cancer each year in the UK.
Cases of liver cancer due to smoking rose from 711 in 2003 to 1,630 last year. Similarly, kidney cases rose from 1,215 to 2,151 and throat cases from 619 to 1,261 during the same period.
Cancer specialists have warned that the UK is at a tipping point when it comes to cancer services and called for a national cancer strategy to turn things around.
In a paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology, they said there had been continuing failures to reduce inequalities in cancer survival and warned that delays in treatment were costing lives.
Oncologists at hospitals including Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Trust, Imperial College London and University College London have warned the UK has one of the highest rates of cancer diagnoses following emergency admissions.
They argue that “novel solutions” such as new diagnostic tests have been wrongly touted as “solutions” to the cancer crisis, but note that “none of them address the fundamental issues of cancer as a systems problem.”
Calling for system-wide reform to reduce inequality in cancer care and boost earlier diagnosis and timely treatment, they put forward several policy recommendations, including expanding national audits of care.
Professor Pat Price, co-founder of the Cancer Recovery Campaign and chairman of Radiotherapy UK, said cancer services were in crisis, adding: “The tragedy is that it doesn’t have to be this way.”
She said: ‘The cancer community knows what needs to be done and how to do it. Too often, policy makers focus on one aspect, such as diagnosis, but that alone is not enough.
“If diagnosis is encouraged but patients are not treated in time, newly diagnosed patients end up stuck on long waiting lists. We need rapid diagnosis and timely treatment.”
She added: “Cancer is a complex disease, but the starting point for addressing our poor survival rates is simple: have a plan.”
‘The last government’s decision to scrap the national cancer control plan must be reversed. All international evidence shows that countries with national cancer plans have a better survival rate. And we need to make sure that the plan is adequately resourced and ensures that cancer is treated early and diagnosed early.’