Men have a significantly higher likelihood of late-stage cancer diagnosis across 20 different tumor types.The largest disparities involved tongue, thyroid, and salivary gland cancers.The reasons for the disparity appear to be multifactorial, involving biological, social, and cultural determinants.
Men had a higher likelihood than women for late-stage diagnosis of 20 different types of cancer, data from a national registry network showed.
The analysis of 30 nonreproductive organ cancers showed men had higher odds ratios for regional or distant metastasis at diagnosis in two-thirds of the cancer types. Men had a significantly higher risk of regional spread at diagnosis for 16 cancers and distant metastasis for 17. The largest male/female disparity was for tongue, thyroid, and salivary gland cancers, as later-stage diagnosis occurred twice as often. Only for bladder cancer did men have significantly lower odds of later-stage diagnosis (for both regional and distant spread).
Cancers where men had a higher odds for both regional and distant metastasis at diagnosis included several cancers of the head and neck, melanoma, and gastric, lung, thyroid, and kidney cancers, among others.
The findings add to men's long-recognized higher risk of dying of cancer and could provide insight into reasons for the disparity, reported Beth Maclin, PhD, MPH, of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
