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生活方式和医疗保健互动

我们知道，诸如吸烟，超重或肥胖和饮酒等可修改的生活方式因素与4 out of 10 cancers男人更有可能至少有一个或多个这些危险因素。以烟草为例，在男性中吸烟对某些癌症类型的速度有重大影响，尤其是肺，头颈，肠，膀胱，胰腺，胰腺 - 癌症可能会出现特别差的癌症。幸运的是，现在男性的吸烟率正在稳步下降，我们开始看到其中一些癌症的发生率下降。

Another potential reason is that men are less likely to have as many opportunities for contact with health professionals across their lifetime in order to obtain health information or to report possible cancer-related symptoms. Women are more likely to have frequent contact on matters relating to contraception, pregnancy, child rearing or menopause and they have also had exposure to healthcare professional through participating in breast (and cervical) cancer screening for the past three decades.

相比之下，男人直到最近才有机会以肠癌筛查，但该测试是在家进行的，这进一步限制了医疗保健专业接触的机会。

性别差异

But what about inherent differences between the sexes, could they be responsible for some of these differences in cancer rates? Sex hormones, including oestrogens (the primary female sex hormone) and testosterone (the primary male sex hormone), are related to sex-specific cancers such as breast in women and prostate in men but surprisingly, little research has been conducted to see if they are involved in the development of cancers that affect both sexes.

It’s unclear whether these observations represent a potentially protective effect for oestrogen or a detrimental effect for testosterone – or both.

食道（或食物管道）和胃的癌症在men than in women和是癌症与贫穷的结果。这difference in rates between the sexes is especially pronounced for腺癌，，，，the type that most commonly occurs in developed countries, with reports estimating up to a 7-fold difference in men compared to women.

性别的变化并不能完全通过已知的危险因素（例如吸烟，肥胖和胃食管反流）来解释，而在雌激素浓度最高时，在女性生殖年中，男性与女性比率最高。但是目前尚不清楚这些观察结果是否代表了雌激素的潜在保护作用，还是对睾丸激素或两者兼而有之的有害作用。

在男性生殖和荷尔蒙因素的首次研究中，我们最近发现，男性模式秃发（用作较高睾丸激素水平的代理）与较小的风险增加有关stomach cancer并且在入学的男性中更为明显UK Biobank，一项大型英国队列研究。为了进一步研究这一点，我们正在进行研究，以检查男性和女性的血液循环性激素的使用，除了循环血液水平的性激素外，还可以看到这些癌症的后续风险。

This research, along with the work of others, will provide insights into the possible biological reasons for the difference in oesophageal and stomach cancer rates between men and women and in the future, could lead to the identification of potentially exploitable prevention strategies. It’s important to point out though that this work is still very much in the early stages and additional research is required before any firm conclusions can be drawn.

What can men do to reduce cancer risk?

不幸的是，与女性相比，男性患癌症更频繁的原因不可能是一个原因。除了调查潜在的生物学因素外，很明显，我们还需要专注于预防癌症和早期诊断和运动，例如Be Clear on Cancer在英国，正在尝试解决这个问题 - 但需要增加和持续的努力。

因此，在这个国际男子节，男人可以采取什么措施来减少未来患癌症的整体风险？这World Cancer Research Fund’s evidence-based recommendations for healthy lifestyle choices include:

• 健康体重
• Be physically active
• 吃全麦，蔬菜，水果和豆类
• 限制“快餐”的消费
• Limit consumption of red and processed meats
• 限制酒精摄入量

除了健康的生活方式选择外，重要的是认识你自己，您的家族史，并告诉您的医生是否注意到改变这对您来说并不正常，例如持续的咳嗽，肠运动的变化或吞咽困难。