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TOPLINE:

In a UK biobank study, men had significantly higher risks for oesophageal adenocarcinoma and cancers of the bladder, rectum, kidney, and liver than women, suggesting persistent sex differences even after accounting for established risk factors.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers examined sex differences in the incidence of cancers across 15 anatomical sites and 13 subtypes in 470,771 participants from the UK Biobank.
• The analysis included 253,344 women (53.8%; mean age at recruitment, 56 years) and 217,427 men (46.2%; mean age at recruitment, 56 years).
• Cancer diagnoses were captured through linkage to national cancer and death registries, and outcomes were defined as the first incident cancer diagnosis or cancer first recorded in death certificates.

TAKEAWAY:

• During 10.5 years of follow-up, researchers identified 32,315 incident cancers, with 18,774 (58.1%) in women and 13,541 (41.9%) in men.
• In minimally adjusted models, men showed the highest risk for oesophageal adenocarcinoma (hazard ratio [HR], 6.01), followed by cancers of the gastric cardia (HR, 4.17) and bladder (HR, 4.07).
• After multivariable adjustment for risk factors, men maintained significantly higher risks for cancers at eight sites, including oesophageal adenocarcinoma (HR, 5.45), gastric cardia (HR, 3.65), bladder (HR, 3.47), oral cavity (HR, 2.06), liver (HR, 1.91), kidney (HR, 1.77), rectum (HR, 1.70), and leukaemia (HR, 1.43).
• Women showed higher risks for breast cancer (HR, 0.005), thyroid cancer (HR, 0.36), anal cancer (HR, 0.41), and lung adenocarcinoma (HR, 0.72) than men.

IN PRACTICE:

"In our pan-cancer analyses in a large UK cohort study, we have identified sex differences in cancer incidence that are only partially explained by known cancer risk factors. Particularly marked differences include a higher incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma and of cancers of the bladder, rectum, liver, and kidney in men, and of thyroid and lung adenocarcinoma in women," the authors wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Maira Khan, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, England. It was published online on May 08, 2025, in the British Journal of Cancer.

LIMITATIONS:

The analysis was subject to residual confounding in explaining apparent sex differences for certain cancers. The generalisability of the findings was limited as the UK Biobank cohort comprised mostly White European participants who were relatively healthier than the general UK population. Some cancer endpoints could not be explored due to relatively low statistical power. Additionally, this study did not explore sex differences in the risk for cancers on the basis of anatomical subsites or analyse information on the tumour stage or histological grade.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by grants from Cancer Research UK. Khan received support through a Nuffield Department of Population Health DPhil Prize Studentship. The authors declared having no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.