Men tend to get cancer more often than women, and that prevalence is expected to worsen.
“Substantial disparities in cancer cases and deaths were observed among men in 2022, and these are projected to widen by 2050,” according to a study published Monday in Cancer, an Interdisciplinary Journal of the American Cancer Society.
By 2050, the number of new cancer deaths for men globally is expected to reach 10.5 million, a 93 percent increase. Additionally, the number of new cancer cases for men is projected to rise by 84 percent. Both rates are higher for men than for women.
The rise in the number of cancer deaths is particularly pronounced in men aged 65 or older, marking an over 117 percent increase. Almost two-thirds of the males who developed cancer or died from the disease were in this age group.
Lifestyle Choices Are the Main Factors
The 2050 estimate was based on 2022 observations, with researchers making projections for every five years.
Researchers ascribed lifestyle choices like smoking and alcohol consumption as the main factors for the widening gap between sexes.
The researchers analyzed data on 30 cancers among men in 2022, gathered from 185 countries and territories.
Researchers also said that men tend to get exposed to more carcinogens in the workplace, participate less in cancer prevention screenings, and are less involved in early treatment, which contributes to a higher cancer incidence rate.
The cancer death rate for men was 43 percent higher than it was in women in 2020, with 120.8 deaths per 100,000 men, compared to 84.2 per 100,000.
Lung cancer was the most common cancer and caused the most deaths, the authors said, although the leading cancer was noted to vary slightly across different age groups.
Cancers Affecting Men Receive Less Attention
The study pointed out that cancer affecting women receives more public attention.
“Early detection and interventions for female-specific cancers, such as breast and cervical cancer, have been beneficial; however, there are no comparable programs for male-specific cancers, such as prostate or testicular cancer,” the researchers wrote.
Additionally, males participate less often in screening programs for diseases afflicting both sexes, such as colorectal cancer, according to the study.
Male Smokers Outnumber Female Smokers 5 to 1
Though smoking is a leading cause of death around the globe, there is a big difference in the prevalence of male smokers versus female. According to a study by University of Washington researchers, 32.6 percent of men worldwide smoked in 2020 compared to 6.5 percent of women.
Smoking is a leading risk factor for cancer, and it is linked to lung, mouth, prostate, and blood cancer, along with others. Alcohol consumption, which is also more prevalent in men, has been linked to cancers such as liver, colorectal, prostate, and stomach cancer.
