MARYLAND: Men may have a higher risk of developing cancer than women, possibly due to biological differences rather than lifestyle, a new study suggests.
The research, published in the Journal of the American Cancer Society, was conducted under the guidance of the National Cancer Institute.
"Our findings suggest that cancer incidence cannot be explained solely by environmental factors, but that there are fundamental biological differences between men and women that contribute to cancer risk," study author Sarah S. Jackson said in a statement.
.jpg)
In the study, researchers measured habits such as smoking, body mass index and height, physical activity, diet and medication use along with medical history, which overall showed men had a higher risk of developing 21 types of cancer.
The study, conducted at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 2011, included 171,247 men and 122,823 women between the ages of 50 and 71.
According to the researchers, out of 26 thousand 693 cancer cases, 17 thousand 951 cases were men and 8 thousand 742 cases were women. Only thyroid and gallbladder cancer cases were more common among women than men, but men had 1.3 to 10.8 times the risk of developing other types of cancer compared to women.
However, nothing is clear about what causes sex discrimination to cause cancer, and researchers have called for more studies on the matter.
