The answer, according to a new study, is men.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute looked at data for 36 types of cancer by gender and age. (data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program)
The results showed that men (in the United States) are more likely than women to die from a majority of specific types of cancer.
- lung and bronchus (2.31 men died compared to 1 woman)
- colon and rectum (1.42-to-1)
- pancreas (1.37-to-1)
- leukemia (1.75-to-1)
- liver and intrahepatic bile duct (2.23-to-1)
- urinary bladder (3.36-to-1)
- lip cancer (5.51-to-1)
- larynx (5.37-to-1)
- hypopharynx (4.47-to-1)
- esophagus (4.08-to-1)
“Our research suggests that the main factor driving the greater frequency of cancer deaths in men is the greater frequency of cancer diagnosis, rather than poorer survival once the cancer occurs,” said Michael B. Cook, Ph.D., an investigator in the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute. “If we 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.”
This study is published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
