The number of people developing cancer due to being overweight is set to double, new data shows.
Health chiefs said obesity was “the new smoking” but most people did not know it could cause the disease.
NHS England estimates 36,800 Brits a year will be told they have a fat-linked cancer by 2030.
This will hit 40,800 by 2035, a 100% rise from the 22,761 cases identified by Cancer Research UK in 2015.
Charities insisted it should be a “wake-up call to Government”.
NHS England boss Simon Stevens said: “Obesity is the new smoking. By 2030 we could see 100 patients every day diagnosed with obesity-related cancer.
“If we continue to pile on the pounds, we’re heading for thousands more avoidable deaths every year. The NHS can’t win the ‘battle of the bulge’ on its own.
“Families, food businesses and government all need to play their part if we’re to avoid copying America’s obesity epidemic.”
Global experts meeting in Chicago demanded restrictions on advertising junk food to kids and said taxes on fast food should be used to subsidise healthy options like fruit and veg.
Prof Linda Bauld, of Cancer Research UK, said: “These extremely worrying numbers should be a wake-up call to the Government.
“Being overweight or obese is the biggest preventable cause of cancer in the UK after smoking.”
Victim: Janet, age 56
Grandmother Janet Boak was diagnosed with womb cancer at 51 and had a hysterectomy.
Janet, who tipped the scales at almost 20st at the time, was shocked to find out her weight may have played a part in causing the disease.
She said: “I knew I needed to lose weight. But I was completely unaware of how much this extra weight was endangering my life.”
Janet, from Carlisle, has lost 6st and gone from a size 30 to 16 after joining a slimming group.
“Cancer was one of the scariest experiences of my life,” she said. “The wake-up call I needed.”
