UK’s soaring liver cancer death rate blamed on alcohol and obesity

The British Liver Trust says alcohol is a group 1 carcinogen that causes at least seven types of cancer. Photograph: geogphoto/Alamy

One of the country’s leading health charities is calling for urgent action to reduce the “carcinogenic effects” of cheap alcohol and unhealthy food after a 40% increase in deaths from liver cancer in a decade.

Liver cancer is now the fastest rising cause of cancer death in the UK, warns the British Liver Trust. Since the early 1970s, liver cancer mortality rates have more than tripled.