Men more likely to die from cancer: US study

By Chris Hondros | AFP – Wed, Jul 13, 2011

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Men are more likely than women to die of most types of cancer, according to a new US study.

The report published Tuesday in the journal "Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention," analyzed the survival rate at five years for 36 different types of cancer.

It found the greatest gender gap in deaths from mouth cancer, with 5.51 men dying for every woman, followed by cancer of the larynx, at 5.37, cancer of the hypopharynx at 4.47 and esophageal cancer at 4.08.

The same trend was observed for cancers with the highest mortality rates, including lung cancer, which kills 2.31 men for every woman, and colorectal cancer, which kills 1.42 men for every woman.

Pancreatic cancer kills 1.37 men for every woman, leukemia 1.75 and liver cancer 2.23, the study said.

The researchers said it was difficult to say what caused the gender gap, but cited the different behavior of tumors as well as differences in the regularity of medical examinations.

The report noted, for example, that American men are more likely than women to present advanced cancer at the time of diagnosis.