Despite having a survival advantage over men for most causes of death, women ages 35 and 60 have a higher mortality rate from cancer, according to a study published March 2 in the JAMA Network Open.
Researchers analyzed data of 264 million deaths between 1955 and 2020 from the Human Mortality Database and the WHO Mortality Database across 20 high-income countries including the U.S., the U.K. and Canada.
Here are four notes from the study:
- Women from all 20 countries had lower mortality rates for cardiovascular disease and external causes of death but a “striking exception” was found for cancer deaths during the reproductive years, according to a report on the study published March 20 in the American Journal of Managed Care.
- Women’s higher cancer mortality between the ages of 35 and 60 was driven by breast and gynecological cancers.
- In the U.S., women with cancer outlive men with cancer by 0.84 years.
Removing all female reproductive cancers would add 0.70 years to the overall survival gap.
Removing breast cancer alone would add 1.26 years to the cancer-specific survival gap. - “The elevated risk of breast and gynecological cancers during the reproductive years may be interpreted as a biological cost — or the price of reproduction,” the study authors wrote. “The consistent burden of female reproductive cancers in midlife points to an opportunity for earlier detection and better management strategies targeting reproductive ages.”
Read the full study here.
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