Men More Likely to Be Diagnosed at Regional, Distant Cancer Staging

THURSDAY, July 9, 2026 (HealthDay News) — For many cancer sites, men are more likely than women to be diagnosed at regional or distant staging than localized staging, according to a study published online July 1 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Beth J. Maclin, Ph.D., M.P.H., from the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Maryland, and colleagues used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results 21 database (2015 to 2022, excluding 2020) to examine sex differences in cancer stage at diagnosis for nonreproductive solid organ tumors across 30 cancer sites.

The researchers found that for 20 sites, men had greater odds of being diagnosed at regional and/or distant stages compared with the localized stage, while at four sites they had lower odds of being diagnosed at later stages compared with women. When examining distant stage, the sites with the largest and smallest adjusted odds ratios (i.e., male predominance and female predominance, respectively) were the tongue and bladder, respectively (adjusted odds ratios, 2.34 and 0.69, respectively).

“There are a variety of possible explanations for why we found sex differences among most cancer sites we studied,” Maclin said in a statement. “One explanation could be differences in cancer screening uptake for sites that can be detected through screening. It is also possible that there are differences in health care-seeking behaviors.”

Abstract/Full Text (subscription or payment may be required)