INTERNATIONAL research led by Adelaide University has found that women are more likely to survive cancer than men, but face a higher risk of serious and adverse side effects from treatment.
The research identified consistent differences between male and female cancer patients in both survival and treatment toxicity, with female patients having a 21% lower risk of death compared with male patients, but a 12% higher risk of severe side effects.
These sex-based differences were largely consistent across 12 advanced solid tumour types as well as treatment regimens, including chemotherapy, targeted therapies and immunotherapy.
This suggested the differences stem from underlying biological mechanisms, not just drug-specific effects, the researchers said.
The findings have important implications for how drugs are evaluated and prescribed, strengthening the case for routinely reporting and acting on sex-specific evidence in clinical research, with researchers now calling for biological sex to be recognised as a core prognostic factor in oncology, both in clinical trials and everyday cancer care.
"This is about improving outcomes for every cancer patient," said lead author Dr Natansh Modi from Adelaide University's School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences.
Read the study HERE.
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