Experts ask why men are more likely to die from nearly all common cancers

The Men’s Health Forum, a charity, has launched a new report asking why men are more likely to be diagnosed with and to die from nearly all common cancers.

Once breast cancer and cancers that can only affect one sex or the other are taken out of the figures – men are then 67% more likely to die.

The MHF says that health services must act to deliver awareness and screening that targets men and saves lives.

The report, ‘Men and Cancer: Saving Lives’ (attached), launched at the Britain Against Cancer conference this week, collates cancer experts’ presentations and opinion from a conference earlier this year.

David Wilkins, who wrote the report for the Men’s Health Forum said:

“Most of the explanations for men’s high rates of death from cancer are to do with lifestyle differences between the sexes. However, we cannot precisely quantify how much difference that makes in any one cancer.”

“A logical response is to concentrate on improving men’s lifestyles and improving symptom awareness so that men seek help earlier. This is particularly important for those men in the poorest communities where rates are at their highest and so are gender differences.”

Martin Tod, chief executive of the Men’s Health Forum said:

“We want more targeted health information to help men avoid cancer and more targeted screening to help men catch cancer earlier if they do get it – particularly with those men who go to GPs the least.  And where there’s a link between cancer and infection – such as with HPV – we’d like to see boys getting vaccinated.

We also want to see more research. There are a lot of things that men can do now to cut their risk of cancer – but there are also too many things about men and cancer that are not yet properly understood.”

Experts concluded that there are almost no known biological explanations for higher rates of cancer in men. That does not mean there never will be any biological explanations - 35% of cancers still have no known cause, so some may have biological explanations. That 35% is likely to remain unexplained for some time to come.  

ENDS

NOTES:

1.      The Men’s Health Forum, a charity, is the voice for the health and wellbeing of men and boys in England and Wales

2.      The men and cancer expert seminar was held on the 29^th January and was organised by the Men’s Health Forum and the NHS National Cancer Equality Initiative.

3.      The event was sponsored by Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi Pasteur MSD and Novartis.

4.      Expert speakers presentations at the event:

• Statistical trends as a guide to future action (Prof Alan White, Co-Director Centre for Men’s Heath, Leeds Metropolitan University)

• Recent progress in Ireland, where an important national report has tried to identify some of the explanations for higher rates of cancer in men (Dr Noel

Richardson, Director of the Centre for Men’s Health, Institute of Technology Carlow, Ireland and Nick Clark, Assistant Researcher, Centre for Men’s Health, Institute of Technology Carlow, Ireland and Irish Cancer Society Research Scholar)

• Encouraging early presentation and early diagnosis in men (Kathy Elliott, Public Health Consultant, National Lead for prevention, early diagnosis and inequalities, National Cancer Action Team)

• Potential biological explanations for gender differences in cancer incidence and mortality (Prof David Phillips, Professor of Environmental Carcinogenesis, King’s College London)

• Infections as a cause of cancer in men (Mr Peter Greenhouse, FRCOG FFSRH, Consultant in Sexual Health, Bristol Sexual Health Centre and Weston Integrated Sexual Health Centre)

5.      Policy ideas that had the most support among the audience are set out below:

a.      That a wider range of cancer data should be collected. That these data should routinely be published in gender-disaggregated form and made more easily accessible to policy makers and practitioners.

b.      That GP surgeries and other primary care providers should be required to make more effort to reach out to men, especially those men in particular sub-groups who are known to be poorer users of services.

c.       That the HPV vaccination programme should be extended to include boys.

d.      That there should be greater control of lifestyle-related risk factors such as smoking, alcohol intake and unhealthy foodstuffs.

e.      That we should incentivise health providers to improve services for men and that we should consider health improvement interventions that incentivise men to participate.

6.      The MHF is online at:
www.menshealthforum.org.uk for health professionals and policy makers, and www.malehealth.co.uk for fast, free, independent health info from the Men’s Health Forum.

@menshealthforum for updates on our work.