Does being homosexual influence one’s risk of developing cancer? Why do bisexual and lesbian women who survive cancer appear to be less healthy than heterosexual female cancer survivors? These are some of the questions scientists from Boston University School of Public Health researched and reported in the journal Cancer.

The authors say that their findings may help experts define what types of services and programs are most effective for gay, lesbian and bisexual cancer survivors.

As background information, the researchers explained that cancer surveillance studies have never asked patients about their sexual orientation. So, there is very little data about on how many gay, lesbian or bisexual cancer survivors there are, and how they are.

Ulrike Boehmer, PhD. and team set out to determine what cancer prevalence and survival rates were in California according to sexual orientation. They also wanted to find out whether sexual orientation influenced health outcomes – in other words, was there any general difference in the health of gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual cancer survivors?

They gathered information from the California Health Interview, 2001, 2003 and 2005. It is the largest state health survey ever carried out in America and included 3,690 males and 7,252 females who were diagnosed with cancer during adulthood.

The researchers found that:

  • Females – no difference in cancer rates between lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual women
  • Females – lesbian and bisexual cancers survivors had more than double the likelihood of having poorer health than heterosexual cancer survivors
  • Males – the risk of developing cancer is 1.9 times higher among gay men than heterosexual men
  • Males – cancer survivor health status was similar among gay and heterosexual men

Dr. Boehmer said:

“This information can be used for the development of services for the lesbian, gay, and bisexual population. Because more gay men report as cancer survivors, we need foremost programs for gay men that focus on primary cancer prevention and early cancer detection. Because more lesbian and bisexual women than heterosexual women with cancer report that they are in poor health, we need foremost programs and services that improve the well-being of lesbian and bisexual cancer survivors.”

The authors stressed that we still do not know why there is a higher rate of cancer among gay men. There are still many unanswered questions regarding the health status of lesbian and bisexual females. Older and sicker people were not included in the study.

The authors added that this study included only people in California, and all the cases of cancer diagnosis were self-reported ones.

The study did not include data on HIV infection rates (some cancer risks are linked to HIV status).

“Cancer survivorship and sexual orientation.”

Ulrike Boehmer, Xiaopeng Miao, Al Ozonoff.
CANCER; Published Online: May 9, 2011 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.25950)

Written by Christian Nordqvist