Cancer study results are bad news for men

MEN are less likely than women to survive different types of cancer, according to a new Australian study.

The research, published in Cancer Causes and Control, found men to have lower fiveyear survival rates than women for 11 of the 25 cancer types investigated, including the head and neck, oesophagus, colon or rectum, pancreas, lung, bone, melanoma, mesothelioma, kidney, thyroid and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

On the other hand, women had a lower survival rate than men for cancers of the bladder, renal pelvic or ureter.

The study involved Cancer Council Victoria, the University of Melbourne’s School of Population and Global Health Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Austin Health and the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services. It excluded non-melanoma skin cancer, sex-specific cancers, breast cancer and cancers notified via autopsy and death certificate.

The results found the fiveyear net survival for the 25 cancer types combined was lower for men than women, and the excess rate of death due to cancer was 13 per cent higher for men.

Previous studies have acknowledged that sex is an important factor in the prognosis of some cancers, however, this new study is one of very few large-scale studies that have investigated whether a person’s sex impacts their chances of surviving cancer.

Lead researcher Nina Afshar concluded men had worse survival than women for many cancers, but further work needed to be done to identify the reasons.