The UK is the fourth worst country in the world for rates of cancer caused by obesity in men, a recent study has discovered.

The research published in The Lancet Oncology, which compared 176 countries, found that only men in Argentina, Jordan and the Czech Republic were worse off, with Britain reporting 4.4 per cent of cancers being linked to obesity each year, a total of 7,217 cases.

In the USA – which is renowned for its obesity issues – the figure stood at 3.5 per cent, while the global average is 1.9 per cent.

British women are even worse off, with 13,000 cases a year (8.2 per cent) being obesity linked – the global average is 5.4 per cent – but it is lower down the overall table, with only 38 countries faring worse.

The figures are thought to be high in women due to the fact that breast cancer, the most common female cancer, is intrinsically linked to obesity. Currently, 12 per cent of breast cancer cases are directly linked to excess weight, which amounts to 5,000 cases a year.

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph, latest UK figures show 67 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women are overweight or obese.

Carrying excess weight is a major risk factor for the most common cancers, triggering more than one in ten cases, according to a study earlier this year by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. It cited that many people who knew that gaining weight increased their risk of heart disease and diabetes, were still unaware of the links between obesity and cancer.

“Put simply, these figures show that we are killing ourselves,” said Tam Fry of the National Obesity Forum. “Despite warnings for years that obesity causes a whole host of health problems, the public is paying no attention.”

Scientists who analysed data on cancer incidence and mortality from 184 countries in 2012, estimated that overall a quarter of obesity-related cancers could be attributed to rising average BMI in the global population since 1982 and were “realistically avoidable”.

In 2011 The Lancet published Health and Economic Burden of the Projected Obesity Trends in USA and UK, which predicted 65 million more obese adults in the USA and 11 million in the UK by 2030. It also projected an additional 500,000 UK cancer cases during this time, costing £2bn annually.