Why the ‘cancer gap’ between men and women is closing

Women are closing the gap on men with cancer cases increasing by 3.7 per cent in just two years, data shows.

While men are still more likely to be diagnosed, the difference between the sexes has halved since 2019 to just 6,559 cases.

Experts believe the rising numbers are largely the result of changing behaviours decades ago, such as the decline in smoking rates happening sooner among men.

There are also concerns of rising rates of early onset cancers, such as breast and bowel, increasing more rapidly in women.

The latest findings by the World Research Cancer Fund suggest it is a matter of time until women overtake men with cancer diagnoses.

In the UK, there were 395,181 cases of cancer were diagnosed in 2021, the latest full data available, consisting of 200,870 in men, and 194,311 in women.

This compares to 200,386 and 187,434, respectively in 2019.

The ‘rapid narrowing’ means the difference has fallen from approximately 12,900 to 6,500 in two years.

There are also concerns of rising rates of early onset cancers, such as breast and bowel, increasing more rapidly in women (file image)

Dr Vanessa Gordon-Dseagu said: ‘It is likely that any changes in the number of new cases are partially explained by behaviour. For example, smoking increasing lung cancer risk’ (file image)

Breast cancer remains the most common type of cancer among UK women with 59,115 new cases in 2021, around three in ten.

Meanwhile, prostate cancer remains the most common cancer among men with 51,575 cases diagnosed – accounting for just over a quarter (26 per cent) of new diagnoses in men.

Dr Vanessa Gordon-Dseagu, of the World Cancer Research Fund, said: ‘While the total number of cancers is still higher among men than women, the latest increases among women, and decreases among men, suggest that this difference is declining quite rapidly.

‘It is likely that any changes in the number of new cases are partially explained by behaviour. This will be particularly true for those cancers for which there is strong evidence that behaviour increases risk.

‘For example, smoking increasing lung cancer risk or processed meat and alcohol increasing bowel cancer risk.

‘Following WCRF’s Cancer Prevention Recommendations can help people reduce their cancer risk.’