Cancer caused by smoking, drinking, obesity and sunburn leads to £40bn a year in lost productivity, costs the people affected £30bn and takes up £3.7bn of the NHS's budget, the study says. Preventable cancers also cost families and carers £3.4bn and the social care system £1.3bn.
The stark findings have sparked calls by doctors and public health campaigners for a crackdown on smoking, drinking and poor diet to reduce avoidable cancers because of the huge human and financial toll.
Organisations such as Cancer Research UK (CRUK) and the World Cancer Research Fund estimate that about 40% of all cancers, in the UK and worldwide, are potentially preventable because they are closely linked to lifestyle factors such as diet, smoking and sunburn.
"This report is a stark reminder of the countless lives that could be saved by preventing cancer and a call to the UK government that health prevention strategies are key to relieving pressures on our NHS and economy," said Michelle Mitchell, CRUK's chief executive.
She called for "bold political action" to tackle tobacco and bad diet, adding: "If recent trends continue, smoking could cause around im more cancer cases in the UK between now and 2040. And more than 21 million UK adults could be obese, which would increase their risk of over 13 types of cancer."
The findings are contained in a study of the societal and economic costs of preventable cancers in the UK undertaken by Frontier Economics for the Guardian. Frontier, a leading economics consultancy, specialises in projecting the costs of diseases using data published by government, official and medical bodies. The £78bn cost is the equivalent
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