Men are more likely to be prone to cancer than women

Question

Men are more likely to develop cancer in organs than women, but it isn't always because they smoke and drink more than women

Comments

The link is helpful, but you do very little to make any indication of the importance of any of the points made. Some more elaboration would have been nice, and could have bolstered your fact-check.

Answer 1

It is correct to say that while men are more likely than women to develop organ cancers, this is not necessarily because men smoke or drink more than women.

 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9987657/

The National Library of Medicine, an official website of the United States government, states that biological differences between men and women(physiological, immunological, genetic, and other differences) play a significant role in men's and women's susceptibility to cancer.

https://www.cdc.gov/cancer/features/cancer-and-men.html#:~:text=Overview-,Men%20have%20higher%20rates%20of%20getting%20and%20dying%20from%20cancer,your%20chance%20of%20getting%20cancer

As this site also notes, while it is an official website of United States government, it states that cancer can develop not only from sunburn caused by sunlight. However, when considering the difference in incidence rates between men and women, biological differences do exist.

Answer 2

Yes, in general, men have a higher chance of getting cancer than women. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2023, it is estimated that 1 in 2 men will develop cancer in their lifetime compared to 1 in 3 women. The difference is due to a combination of factors, including lifestyle factors, like men are more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, and have unhealthy diets, Biological factors, Men have different hormonal profiles and immune systems than women, among other things. However, it's important to note that there are exceptions to this trend. For example, women have a higher risk of breast cancer and cervical cancer, while men have a higher risk of prostate cancer and lung cancer. 

sources 

https://www.cancer.org/research/acs-research-news/cancer-incidence-rate-for-women-under-50-rises-above-mens.html

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/why-are-men-at-higher-risk-of-cancer-biological-differences-may-be-at-play#:~:text=More%20than%20that%2C%20they%20were,associated%20with%20this%20one%20gene.%E2%80%9D

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9987657/#:~:text=Why%20do%20men%20face%20a,of%20cancer%20than%20women?%20%2D%20PMC

Answer 3

I think this claim is somewhat subjective. The article provides data that shows men are more likely than women to get certain types of cancer, and more likely based on chromosomes and lifestyle choices. The article also only acknowledges the age range of men and women from 50-71, but doesn't talk about the data for men and women under that age range. This lead me to question if this original claim is accurate, and what the likelihood of cancer is for women 49 and under. 

According to the American Cancer Society, women ages 0-49 are increasingly becoming more likely to get cancer than men. Shown by this graph:

This data is from a limited time period but I think it's safe to say that the original claim doesn't provide enough evidence to support itself. It's also a common known fact that women's health is understudied compared to men's health. According to an article by AAMC, it is a historically known fact that men were considered the "norm" for health and women were avoided as ways to provide data and sampling. This quote from the article says it best, "Failure to study medications and other interventions in a broad sampling of women has contributed to women experiencing adverse effects from medications at twice the rate of men". Women are not the focus when it comes to health and medicine. Thus the claim that "Men are more likely to be prone to cancer than women", is hard to prove as true or false, but it is certainly misleading, because it doesn't provide enough data.

https://www.cancer.org/research/acs-research-news/cancer-incidence-rate-for-women-under-50-rises-above-mens.html

https://www.aamc.org/news/why-we-know-so-little-about-women-s-health

Answer 4

Yes, this claim is a true statement with evidence to support it. Males contract more cancer in more body parts, which is widely believed to be factors of "lower estrogen levels", as well as "higher testosterone levels", which can foster more cell growth - those cells add to the amount of mutation flows, in turn increasing likelihood for cancer. In a study by the American Cancer Society, they found that "men have a higher risk for cancer than women", but this is still a mostly unexplainable reason. Even with lifestyle factors and exposure to carcinogenic material accounted for, the male predominance remained even. The American Cancer Society also found that differences in estrogen and testosterone may be associated with increased "susceptibility to cancer". Overall, this claim is true, and many reliable sources can support it with their findings.

Source: https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/10970142/2022/128/19