Cancer Across Genders
This post will, I guess, work out to be another chip towards determining the superior sex. Women tend to be the winners of this battle based on today's random fact that men are overall, more susceptible to cancer (both radiation-induced and naturally occurring):
In the US, there is a 1 out of 5 lifetime mortality risk for males as compared to the females' risk of 1 out of 6 (1).
All jokes aside, these figures are definitely startling. Regardless of gender, these statistics are frighteningly high and neither gender is truly coming out victorious. But with this defined statistical significance in cancer prevalence and mortality differing between the sexes, I find it to be very interesting to explore some of the factors leading to this result.
It's common knowledge that there are differences between males and females, from social, behavioral, and to the physiological. All these factors could lead to occurrences that put one at a higher risk for developing cancer and the increased susceptibility as compared to the other sex. One major and lesser known difference is the female immune superiority.
Women actually have stronger immune systems. Scientists are studying to see the exact reasons for this, and have already pointed some of this to the X-chromosome. It seems that many immunoregulatory regions are located within the DNA of the X-chromosome. Just from women's increase in their number of this chromosome may benefit their total strength. Also hormonal differences (differing levels of estrogen, testosterone, and more) have defined impact on one's relative immune strength. They can affect the qualities and number of immune cells. Certain immune chemicals can have a negative impact on cancer cells, helping to prevent initiation. This makes it hard for cancer cells to even start growing. This is all besides the normal cell killing that immune cells try to do when they encounter abnormal, cancerous cells. With a strong immune system, these effects are amplified. Males are generally more likely to get cancer but there are a few types of cancer that are significantly more prevalent in females. One major type would be thyroid cancer, where increased estrogen levels may actually promote the cancer's proliferation and cause further progression. There also seem to be genetic differences (replication and repair activity) that are harder to directly correlate to cancer risk but seem to have a definite impact. All this leads to a significantly higher level of cancer in males. (2) (3)
Just to even the playing field and give men a chance in this losing battle of the sexes I will add in one more random fact. This superiority in immune system strength can lead to overactivity and women's higher risk for autoimmune disorders (Celiac Disease, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis and more). It's definitely a losing scenario in either case. These factors affect one's natural risk cancer and when coupled with high or sustained radiation dose lead to the stochastic cancer risks which was originally posted above. Understanding your natural risk, helps to better understand how that is then modified by radiation dose.
Your Total Risk for cancer= Natural Risk * Dose Factor (Radiation leading to rad-induced cancer)
All in all, these numbers are definitely prompting a donation to a cancer research fund.
Cited:
(1) Shaw.Fundamentals of Nuclear Engineering.Text
(2) Dorak, M. T., & Karpuzoglu, E. (2012). Gender Differences in Cancer Susceptibility: An Inadequately Addressed Issue. Front. Genetics, 2012(3), 268th ser. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3508426/#__ffn_sectitle
(3)Oertelt-Prigione, S. (2012). The influence of sex and gender on the immune response. [Abstract]. Autoimmune Review, 10, 1016th ser. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22155201
How does radiation affect men and women differently? If men already have higher rates, are the effects proportionate or disproportionate?
ReplyDeleteI don't know what you mean by how does radiation affect men and women differently. I would imagine the mechanism (the way in which radiation affects a human body) is the same regardless of gender. The resulting effects and how the bodies handle those effects due to physiological gender differences can be different. Which leads to different susceptibility to cancer.
ReplyDeleteIn the article, men and women display different rates of contracting cancer. What I'm wondering is how radiation affects the rate of contracting cancer: would the same dose of radiation give men and women a flat percentage increase in the likelihood of contracting cancer, or would a given dosage increase their likelihoods in proportion to the "natural rates" of contracting cancer for each gender?
DeleteAre these gender associated cancer trends seen on a global level? Do the remain relatively constant throughout our entire lives (childhood vs adults/elderly)?
ReplyDeleteHere is a very neat web site that shows the different cancer rates by age and gender. The numbers used are from the UK. Im sure with a little more research numbers from the US can be found to compare.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/incidence/age#heading-Zero
As an engineer, I enjoyed reading more about the medical topic of cancer prevalence in men and women, and getting this perspective, which is different from most of my course study to this point.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thing to consider is the effect on transgender, hermaphrodite, and people born with both genitalia(assuming this means they have other male/female specific bodily functions going on besides genitalia). There's also research that suggests interrupted pregnancies, natural or intentional, can lead to cancer from the associated cells being activated then not needed.
ReplyDelete