Men have higher cancer risk due to biology NOT because they drink and smoke more, study claims
Men drink and smoke more than women – but that’s not the reason they have a higher cancer risk.
A large study shows that biological differences are the real reason behind the disparity between the sexes.
Understanding these differences could help improve prevention and treatment, the researchers say.
The study looked at 300,000 Americans middle-aged and older without cancer for more than 15 years.
Men were more than twice as likely to develop the disease in the study as women – even when lifestyle factors were excluded.
Lead researcher Dr Sarah Jackson, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, said: ‘This suggests that there are intrinsic biological differences between men and women that influence susceptibility. with cancer.
Observational studies have not looked at what these differences are.
Scientists have suggested that men prefer drinking more drinks and smoking more than women as the reason why they have higher rates of cancer overall. But now, a large study of 300,000 Americans by the National Cancer Institute shows that biology makes men more susceptible to cancer, not bad health habits.
Around 182,000 women are diagnosed with cancer in the UK each year, rising to 193,000 in men.
In the United States, 970,000 men and 928,000 women are diagnosed with cancer each year.
Researchers from the NCI examined rates of 21 cancers in 171,274 men and 122,826 women.
The participants were between the ages of 50 and 71 and their records were followed from 1995 to 2011.
The findings, published in the journal CANCER, showed that 17,951 cancers were detected in men, while only 8,742 cases were diagnosed in women.
Rates of thyroid cancer and gallbladder cancer are higher in women, but rates of other cancers are higher in men.
Men are 11 times more likely to develop esophageal cancer and four times more likely to develop stomach or throat cancer.
They are also three times more likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer.
But after accounting for cancer risk factors, such as smoking, alcohol consumption and exposure to toxic chemicals, men were still more likely to develop cancer.
Scientists have previously shown higher rates of smoking, alcohol consumption and exposure to carcinogens – such as asbestos – due to working in factories.
They also said men may go to the doctor less often.
But the results suggest that biological differences between the sexes – such as physiology, immune system and genes – play a ‘key role’ in cancer susceptibility.
But scientists have previously found that women have an extra copy of a gene that protects against cancer than men.
Lead study author Dr Sarah Jackson, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute, said: ‘Our results suggest that there are differences in cancer incidence that cannot be explained only. from exposure to the environment.’
In an editorial accompanying the study, researchers at the University of Washington called for gender to be taken into account by doctors when determining someone’s cancer risk, screening, and treatment.
They say this approach could reduce and ‘ultimately eliminate’ gender disparities in cancer.
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