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Review
. 2025 Nov:215:104843.
doi: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2025.104843. Epub 2025 Jul 12.

Gender differences in radiotherapy: A critical review

Emma D'Ippolito  1 , Roberta Grassi  1 , Cristiano Grossi  2 , Imma Vivone  1 , Giusepina Iaquinto  1 , Viola Salvestrini  3 , Francesca De Felice  4 , Luca Boldrini  5 , Antonio Piras  6 , Isacco Desideri  3 , Giuseppe Carlo Iorio  2 , Valerio Nardone  7
Affiliations
Free article
Review

Gender differences in radiotherapy: A critical review

Emma D'Ippolito et al. Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2025 Nov.
Free article

Abstract

Introduction: Radiotherapy is an effective anticancer agent. Radiosensitivity varies between individuals. While disparities in radiosensitivity between sex have been well documented, most radiotherapy guidelines and clinical trials do not take into account this important sex/gender factor.

Materials and methods: Key references were derived from a PubMed query. Hand searching and clinicaltrials.gov were also used.

Results: This paper contains a narrative report and a critical discussion of the current evidence regarding the interplay between gender and radiotherapy in terms of both treatment tolerance and efficacy.

Conclusions: Personalized treatment approaches and gender-aware clinical trials are essential to optimize patient care and achieve equitable outcomes.

Keywords: Cancer; Gender; Oncology; Precision medicine; Radiotherapy; Sex differences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Valerio Nardone serves as Associate Editor for Critical Reviews in Oncology/Hematology If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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