Cancer in Men Is More Common Than Cancer in Women

There’s good news in the can­cer world. Deaths from can­cer have been falling. With more advanced screen­ing meth­ods and treat­ment options that allow peo­ple to find and treat can­cer in its ear­ly stages, out­comes are improving.

But that’s not the whole sto­ry. While deaths have been decreas­ing, there has been an increase in can­cer cas­es across the coun­try. In 2024, it was esti­mat­ed that the num­ber of new can­cer cas­es in the US would hit more than 2 mil­lion for the first time.

There are a lot of rea­sons why this could be hap­pen­ing, like a rise in obe­si­ty (a risk fac­tor for can­cer) and a grow­ing aging pop­u­la­tion. We’re also see­ing num­bers rise due to advances in screen­ing and the fact that more peo­ple are get­ting screened.

Can­cer can hap­pen to any­one, regard­less of age, sex, race, income, or where they live. How­ev­er, these fac­tors can all affect someone’s risk of get­ting or dying from can­cer. And when it comes to gen­der, the num­ber of can­cer cas­es and deaths in men out­weighs the num­ber in women. 

Also read: Bat­ting a Healthy Thou­sand-Your Men’s Health Playbook

Why Men Are More at Risk for Cancer

For years, this high­er risk was blamed on lifestyle. For exam­ple, men are:

• More like­ly to have can­cer-caus­ing habits like smok­ing or drink­ing alcohol
• Less like­ly to get screened or treat­ed for cancer
• More like­ly to have jobs where they are exposed to carcinogens

How­ev­er, there has been a shift in this think­ing. While lifestyle fac­tors can still play a sig­nif­i­cant role, researchers are start­ing to believe that bio­log­i­cal dif­fer­ences may be the big­ger culprit.

Start­ing from the time they are young chil­dren, males are more like­ly to have can­cer. And among adults, even when things like smok­ing or screen­ing are tak­en into account, men still get can­cer more often. This points to some­thing hap­pen­ing dif­fer­ent­ly in men’s and women’s bod­ies when it comes to can­cer risk. 

And Why Men Are More at Risk for Can­cer-Relat­ed Deaths

Can­cer screen­ing saves lives. When you get the rec­om­mend­ed can­cer screen­ings, you’re more like­ly to find can­cer at its ear­li­est stages. This is when it’s most treatable.

How­ev­er, men get screened sig­nif­i­cant­ly less than women.

With­out screen­ing, men might not find can­cer until its lat­er stages, which is when it’s more dif­fi­cult to treat and can even be fatal.

Also read: Men’s Health: Screen­ing Through the Ages

Almost Every Main Can­cer Is More Com­mon in Men – But Not All

Some can­cers can only affect men, like prostate and tes­tic­u­lar can­cer. But even when it comes to can­cers that can affect any­one, men are often in the lead. Among the ten most com­mon can­cers that affect both men and women, eight are more com­mon in men.

And the num­bers are just as grim when it comes to deaths. Of the sev­en dead­liest can­cers that affect both men and women, breast can­cer is the only one where more women die than men.

There is some­thing inter­est­ing about breast can­cer. Even though more women die of breast can­cer than men, the rate of deaths from breast can­cer is actu­al­ly high­er in men. This could be due to few­er treat­ment options for men. Men are also more like­ly to be diag­nosed at a lat­er stage – when the can­cer is hard­er to treat – because they may not real­ize a lump could be breast can­cer and are less aware that men can get breast can­cer too.

Pre­vent­ing Can­cer Deaths in Men

One of the best things men can do is to keep up with their reg­u­lar screen­ings. Screen­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for men include:

Ques­tions about can­cer or can­cer screen­ing? Sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider.

Also read: To Screen or Not to Screen: When to Get Com­mon Can­cer Screen­ings Quiz

If you have per­son­al risk fac­tors, like a his­to­ry of cer­tain ill­ness­es, your provider may want you to get addi­tion­al screen­ings. Make sure to see your provider for an annu­al exam and to dis­cuss the best screen­ings for you.