Study: More U.S. Men Than Women Die of Cancer

Posted on Jul 12, 2011

Flickr/StreetFly JZ (CC-BY-ND)

This is one of those scientific categories in which it’s better to come in second: According to a new study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, men in the U.S. are more likely to die of cancer than their female counterparts.

However, unlike other studies that attribute the gender divide in cancer mortality rates to differences between men’s and women’s preventive care strategies, as one example, the take-away in this case is that men develop some form of the disease more often than women, according to one of the cancer researchers who worked on the study.  —KA

WebMD:

Our research suggests that the main factor driving greater frequency of cancer deaths in men is the greater frequency of cancer diagnosis, rather than poorer survival once the cancer occurs,” says study researcher Michael B. Cook, PhD, BsC, of the National Cancer Institute.

The study is published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Cook says that if investigators “can identify the causes of these gender differences in cancer incidence, then we can take preventative actions to reduce the cancer burden in both men and women.”

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