Global Warming May Raise Women's Cancer Risk

[NNadir]

This came in on my news feed:

Global Warming May Raise Women's Cancer Risk

Subtitle:

A study on Middle Eastern countries links higher temperatures to an increased risk of cancer.

Excerpts:

Scientists investigating the impact of climate change on women’s health have found that increased heat is linked to an increase in rates of breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers. They looked at 17 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, where temperatures are expected to rise by 4 degrees Celsius by 2050, and found that these four cancers became more common and more likely to be fatal with each degree rise in temperature. The increase can’t be explained by improved diagnosis or survival rates. The researchers call for the urgent integration of climate change resilience into public health plans.

Scientists have found that global warming in the Middle East and North Africa is making breast, ovarian, uterine, and cervical cancer more common and more deadly. The rise in rates is small but statistically significant, suggesting a notable increase in cancer risk and fatalities over time.

“As temperatures rise, cancer mortality among women also rises — particularly for ovarian and breast cancers,” said Dr Wafa Abuelkheir Mataria of the American University in Cairo, first author of the article in Frontiers in Public Health. “Although the increases per degree of temperature rise are modest, their cumulative public health impact is substantial...

... The prevalence of the different cancers rose by 173 to 280 cases per 100,000 people for every additional degree Celsius: ovarian cancer cases rose the most and breast cancer cases the least. Mortality rose by 171 to 332 deaths per 100,000 people for each degree of temperature rise, with the greatest rise in ovarian cancer and the smallest in cervical cancer.



When the researchers broke this down by country, they found that cancer prevalence and deaths rose in only six countries — Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudia Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Syria. This could be due to particularly extreme summer temperatures in these countries, or other factors which the model couldn’t capture. The rise was not uniform between countries: for instance, the prevalence of breast cancer rose by 560 cases per 100,000 people for each degree Celsius in Qatar, but only 330 in Bahrain...

The full paper to which the news item refers is here:

Wafa Abu El Kheir-Mataria, Sungsoo Chun* Front. Public Health, 26 May 2025 Sec. Environmental Health and Exposome
Volume 13 - 2025 Climate change and women’s cancer in the MENA region: assessing temperature-related health impacts

It is free to read.