• Posted May 28, 2025

Climate Change Could Be Fueling Female Cancer Deaths

WEDNESDAY, May 28, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Higher temperatures spurred by climate change could be increasing women’s risk of cancer, a new study says.

Increasing heat in the Middle East and North Africa has made breast, ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers more common and more deadly, researchers reported May 26 in the journal Frontiers in Public Health.

For each additional degree Celsius, cases and deaths of female cancers increased, researchers found.

“As temperatures rise, cancer mortality among women also rises — particularly for ovarian and breast cancers,” lead investigator Wafa Abu El Kheir-Mataria said in a news release. She's a global health governance and health equity researcher at the American University in Cairo.

Increased cancer in these countries could serve as a bellwether for what might happen in nations like the U.S. with currently cooler climes, researchers said.

“Although the increases per degree of temperature rise are modest, their cumulative public health impact is substantial,” Mataria added.

For the study, researchers tracked cancers occurring in 17 Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudia Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and the Palestinian territories.

These countries are already experiencing striking temperature increases tied to climate change, researchers noted.

“Women are physiologically more vulnerable to climate-related health risks, particularly during pregnancy,” senior researcher Sungsoo Chun said in a news release. He's associate chair of the Institute of Global Health and Human Ecology at the American University in Cairo.

Researchers compared each nation’s temperatures to its cancer statistics between 1998 and 2019, and found that rising heat was associated with more cancer cases and deaths.

Cancers increased by 173 to 280 cases per 100,000 people for every additional degree Celsius, results show. Ovarian cancers cases rose the most, and breast cancers the least.

Likewise, cancer deaths rose by 171 to 332 deaths per 100,000 for each degree of temperature rise, with the greatest increase in ovarian cancer and the smallest in cervical cancer.

Six countries experienced the brunt of this increase in cases and deaths – Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Syria.

Although hotter temps are a probable risk factor, the heat might also increase other cancer risk factors like air pollution, researchers said.

“Temperature rise likely acts through multiple pathways,” Chun said. “It increases exposure to known carcinogens, disrupts healthcare delivery, and may even influence biological processes at the cellular level. Together, these mechanisms could elevate cancer risk over time.”

However, researchers noted that the study can’t draw a direct cause-and-effect link between climate change and cancers. More research is needed to better understand how higher temperatures might influence cancer risk.

In the meantime, researchers said public health officials should consider climate-related risks in their planning.

“Strengthening cancer screening programs, building climate-resilient health systems, and reducing exposure to environmental carcinogens are key steps,” Chun said. “Without addressing these underlying vulnerabilities, the cancer burden linked to climate change will continue to grow.”

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about how climate change can impact human health.

SOURCE: Frontiers, news release, May 27, 2025