Men are more likely than women to develop most types of cancer, but it’s unclear why. A new study suggests that underlying biological sex differences may be the answer, rather than behavioral differences related to smoking, drinking, diet, and other factors.
Understanding the reasons for gender differences in cancer risk can provide important information for improving prevention and treatment. For this study, the National Cancer Institute research team studied 171,274 men and 122,826 women aged 50 to 71 years of age who participated in the National Institutes of Health-American Association of Retirees (NIH-AARP) Diet and Health Study from 1995 to 2011. to evaluate the difference in cancer risk for 21 cancer sites.
During this period, 17,951 new cancers were developed in men and 8742 in women. Among them, only the thyroid gallbladder cancer had a lower incidence in men than in women, and the incidence rate of other cancers was 1.3 to 10.8 times higher in men.
The highest increased risk for men was esophageal cancer (10.8 times), laryngeal cancer (3.5 times), stomach and body cancer (3.5 times), and bladder cancer (3.3 times).
Men have an increased risk of most cancers, even following controlling for various risk behaviors and carcinogenic exposure. Indeed, gender differences in risk behavior and carcinogenic exposure were only a few of the reasons for the high incidence of cancer in men (from 11% for esophageal cancer to 50% for lung cancer).
Research results suggest that biological differences between sexes (such as physiological, immunological, genetic, and other differences) play a major role in the cancer susceptibility of men and women.
“Our study shows that there is a difference in cancer incidence that is not explained by exposure to the environment,” said Sarah Jackson, Ph. do,” he said.
Investigating and addressing gender differences in cancer and other diseases is an ongoing challenge. The American Cancer Society wrote in an editorial that a multifaceted approach should be developed to address gender differences in cancer. It is necessary to strategically include gender as a biological variable in all processes from cancer risk prediction and primary prevention, cancer screening and secondary prevention, cancer treatment and patient management.
The study was published in the American Cancer Society journal Cancer. The original title was ‘Sex disparities in the incidence of 21 cancer types: quantification of the contribution of risk factors’.
Reporter Lee Bo-hyun [email protected]
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