Sex disparities in cancer mortality: the risks of being a man in the United States

Abstract

Purpose: In the United States more men are diagnosed with cancer than women. We quantified the differential mortality rates of nonsex specific cancers between the sexes and compared cancer stage distributions.

Materials and methods: In this descriptive epidemiological study we obtained the incidence of new cancer cases, cancer deaths and stage distributions for the last 10 years in the United States from SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) program results. Sex specific cancers were excluded from study. We compared male-to-female relative mortality rate for all cancers as well as the average male-to-female relative mortality rate weighted by cancer incidence in the last 10 years. Sex specific stage distributions were also compared with the Kendall τ-c test.

Results: The male-to-female relative mortality rate for any cancer was 1.060 (95% CI 1.055-1.065). The average male-to-female relative mortality rate for the same cancer was 1.126 (95% CI 1.086-1.168). The discrepancy in incidence and mortality rates was stable for the last 10 years. Of the top 10 most common cancers men had an unfavorable stage distribution in all except colorectal, bladder and brain cancers.

Conclusions: Men are more likely to have nonsex specific cancer than women and more likely to die of the cancer even after controlling for the incidence. This discrepancy has been stable for the last decade. For 7 of the 10 most commonly occurring nonsex specific cancers, representing 78% of all incident cancers, men are more likely to be diagnosed with advanced stage.