Men tend to have a higher risk of cancer than women, and factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption and diet do not seem to explain this disparity, according to a study published in Cancer.
The researchers compared sex differences for 21 types of cancer and found that men had a higher incidence of most of the cancers studied.
For the most part, this increased susceptibility could not be explained by carcinogenic exposures. The researchers theorized that it could be explained by interrelated biological differences between the sexes.
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This study was designed to assess behaviors, anthropometry, lifestyles, and medical history to try to explain the increased risk of cancer in men. The researchers analyzed data from the National Institutes of Health-AARP Study of Diet and Health (1995-2011).
The cohort included 171,274 male and 122,826 female participants. There were a total of 26,693 incident cancers: 17,951 in men and 8,742 in women.
Men had a lower age-adjusted incidence of thyroid cancer (incidence rate rate [IRR], 0.59; 95% CI, 0.49-0.70) and gallbladder cancer (IRR, 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44-0.94) than women. The incidence of anal cancer was similar between the groups (IRR, 0.97; 95% CI, 0.70-1.34).
For all other types of cancer studied, men had a higher incidence than women. The greatest differences were observed for esophageal adenocarcinoma (IRR, 12.19; 95% CI, 8.32-17.86), gastric cardia cancer (IRR, 4.93; 95% CI, 3.59-6, 77) and laryngeal cancer (IRR, 3.99; 95% CI, 3.07-5.17).
These 3 cancers had the highest risk ratios (HRs) among men and women when the researchers adjusted for demographic, lifestyle, and dietary factors. The HR was 10.80 for esophageal adenocarcinoma (95% CI, 7.33-15.90), 3.53 for laryngeal cancer (95% CI, 2.46-5.06), and 3.49 for gastric cardia cancer (95% CI, 2.26-5.37).
Men still had a lower risk of thyroid cancer (HR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.46-0.66) and gallbladder cancer (HR, 0.33; 95% CI, 0. 18-0.58) also in the adjusted analysis.
The researchers found that risk factors explained a proportion of the male excess for adenocarcinoma of the esophagus and cancers of the liver, other bile ducts, bladder, skin, colon, rectum, and lung.
“However, only a modest proportion of the male excess is explained by risk factors (ranging from 50% for lung cancer to 11% for esophageal adenocarcinoma),” the researchers wrote.
“Taken together, our results point to the potential role of sex-related biological mechanisms, rather than differences in carcinogenic exposures, as the main determinants of male-female differences in cancer risk in most patients. shared anatomical sites. It is hypothesized that the increased susceptibility to cancer at shared anatomic sites in men arises from several interrelated biological differences between the sexes, including physiological, immunological, genetic, epigenetic, and genomic mechanisms.”
The researchers suggested that a global assessment of these mechanisms across cancer sites should be performed to help characterize whether they contribute to the increased burden of cancer in men.
Disclosures: One study author declared an affiliation with Merck. See the original reference for more information.
Reference
Jackson SS, Marks MA, Katki HA, et al. Sex disparities in the incidence of 21 types of cancer: Quantifying the contribution of risk factors. Cancer. Published online August 8, 2022. doi:10.1002/cncr.34390
Source: www.cancertherapyadvisor.com