Title: Why are Men More Likely Than Women to Develop Cancer Over the Course of Their Lives? | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Headings: Why are Men More Likely Than Women to Develop Cancer Over the Course of Their Lives?
Why are Men More Likely Than Women to Develop Cancer Over the Course of Their Lives?
X marks the spot

Content: A variety of factors may account for this difference. Historically, men were heavier smokers than women, leading to more lung, head and neck, esophageal, and bladder cancers. In addition, large numbers of men are found to have prostate cancer, although most cases are not dangerous. The number of cases of cervical cancer has declined drastically in the past 75 years, as a result of several trends, including improved and more frequent screening methods like Pap tests, which can detect changes in the cervix before cancer develops. In research led by scientists at Dana-Farber, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), investigators uncovered a genetic explanation for the disparity. Females, it turns out, carry an extra copy of certain protective genes in their cells, which functions as an additional line of defense against cells’ growing out of control, investigators found. Though not solely responsible for cancer’s apparent “bias” toward males, the duplicate copies likely account for some of the imbalance, including up to 80 percent of the excess male cases in some tumor types. “Across virtually every type of cancer, occurrence rates are higher in males than in females. In some cases, the difference might be very small – just a few percent – but in certain cancers, incidence is two or three times higher in males,” said Andrew Lane, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber, the co-senior author of the study with Gad Getz, PhD, of MGH and the Broad Institute. “ Data from the National Cancer Institute show that males carry about a 20 percent higher risk than females of developing cancer.