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Death rates of one type of cancer - that particularly affects younger women - are likely to increase this year.

A review of deaths from a host of major cancers across Europe found bowel cancer is the only one set to increase this year in the UK. Also known as colorectal cancer, it is the same type that killed presenter Dame Deborah James at age 40 in 2022. It is now the third most common cancer in the UK.

Researchers conducted modelling using health and population data for the UK and across the EU to predict the rate of deaths for each cancer in 2026, once the aging populations had been factored in.

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When compared with the period 2020 to 2022, only the age standardised death rates for bowel cancer were expected to increase. Improved treatments are among factors which have generally led to better survival rates for all forms of the disease - but bowel cancer is the only one to buck this trend.

Study author Professor Carlo La Vecchia, of the University of Milan, said “Overall cancer death rates remain generally favourable. Colorectal cancer mortality is now increasing in the UK and most of northern Europe among people aged younger than 50 years, likely due to overweight, obesity and diabetes.”

Bowel cancer causes common symptoms so is hard to diagnose and now kills almost 17,000 Brits each year.

Dame Deborah James was just 35 when she was diagnosed before it spread to other organs throughout her body. Dame Deborah - who was given the moniker ‘Bowel Babe’ - made it her driving mission in her final months to raise awareness of the disease.

The findings, published in the Annals of Oncology, showed age standardised rates of deaths from bowel cancer for women are expected to increase by 3.65%. For men rates are expected to fall by 3.6%. Rates were also projected to fall for all other cancers measured, of the stomach, pancreas, lung, prostate, bladder and blood.

Across the EU all rates of cancer death are falling apart from pancreatic cancer in women.

The Mirror reported last year on findings from a Lancet study which found diagnoses of bowel cancer in young people was rising. Analysis of early onset bowel cancer in those aged 25 to 49 showed England is among the countries with the biggest rise, averaging a 3.6% increase every year.

The latest study shows age-standardised rates of cancers overall in the UK are projected to fall by 11.25% for men and 7.26% for women.

Lung cancer death rates among women are predicted to fall by 13.4% compared to 2020-2022 but these improvements will only be seen in women aged 64 years or younger. Lung cancer death rates will continue to rise among older women, linked to earlier smoking.

Research co-leader Professor Eva Negri, of the University of Bologna, said: “We estimate that, since a peak in 1988, a total of around 7.3 million deaths from cancer have been avoided in the EU and 1.5 million deaths in the UK, assuming that death rates had remained constant at their 1988 levels.”

Prof La Vecchia concluded: “Our findings underline the persistent importance of smoking on cancer mortality. Tobacco control remains the cornerstone of lung cancer prevention, and also plays a role in preventing other cancers.”