Cancer Research UK, the largest cancer charity in the United Kingdom, has published research gathered in 2006–2007 that suggests that men are 40% more likely than women to die from cancer and 16% more likely to develop the disease. However, if gender-specific cancers are excluded (i.e. looking only at cancers that affect both sexes), men are 60% more likely to develop the disease and 70% more likely to die from it than women.
The report, launched to coincide with Men’s Health Week, did not find any biological reason for this – rather, it focuses on differences in behaviour. Men are both more reluctant to lead healthy lifestyles than women – and also, crucially, they are much less likely to visit their GP, so early symptoms of the disease are less likely to be picked up.
Professor Alan White, chairman of the Men's Health Forum, commented that although men should take responsibility for their own health, the availability and access to health services (GPs, weight loss and smoking-cessation, for example) should also be addressed: ‘If you think that nearly 14 million men work full-time and of those 28% are working over 45 hours, then getting to the services is actually very problematic.’ Christine Hancock, director of the Oxford Health Alliance, commented: 'Workplace health schemes are a way to bring healthy messages and lifestyle changes to those, particularly men, who rarely see GPs or access the NHS.'
Source: BBC News online, 15 June 2009.