Regardless of what type of treatment they get, when it comes to early-stage lung cancer women survive for longer than men, say researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
The research team examined the records of 19,000 patients – all of them with early stage lung cancer – for the period 1991 to 1990. There were three types of patient:
1. Patients who underwent surgery.
2. Patients who just had chemotherapy or radiotherapy (but no surgery).
3. Patients who did not have any treatment whatsoever.
In all three cases the women survived for longer than the men did. In the first category women outlived men by one year. In the third category (no treatment) women outlived men by five or six months.
This leads the researchers to believe that the difference here is the biology of cancer rather than the responses to treatment. Women seem to have a 25% lower death rate from lung cancer when compared to men with lung cancer.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today