Study Reveals Concerning Gender Disparities in Mesothelioma Treatment

As per a recent analysis conducted by doctors at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, mesothelioma isn’t an equal opportunity disease in terms of its incidence or in the manner that physicians offer therapy.

This can be mainly attributed to men’s greater probability of asbestos exposure inside the workplace. When guys are diagnosed with the rare and deadly form of cancer, it is common for them to have worked in jobs with higher likelihood for closeness to the carcinogenic substance, while girls are exposed via asbestos having been transported in their home to male relatives’ clothes, by having lived close to an asbestos mine or processing plant, or by using asbestos-contaminated talcum powder.

The sex disparity in prevalence of this disease was expected and evident from the information obtained by the National Cancer Database, which identified about 4,000 women one of the 19,000 mesothelioma patients treated between 2004 and 2013. It was also a surprise to discover that female mesothelioma sufferers live more then their male counterparts, that can be credited to being diagnosed at a younger age and also to many being diagnosed with the treatment-responsive epithelioid cell-type of this disease. What hadn’t been anticipated was that the disparity in treatment provided to the 2 genders.

Girls with Legislation Have Fewer Aggressive Interventions

The mesothelioma study discovered information that appears contradictory regarding both survival and treatment sex differences in mesothelioma sufferers. While girls with mesothelioma generally get longer survival times — using a one-year speed of survival following diagnosis of 45 percent compared to 38% in males — they’re also not as likely to undergo chemotherapy or surgery, a problem that the investigators state requires further research.

According to the report,”Surgery and chemotherapy are underutilized in female patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma” in spite of the fact that female patients are usually in better health in the time of identification compared to their male counterparts and they are diagnosed at a median age of 60 rather compared to median age of identification for guys, that is 72. Although the researchers state this past difference might be a function of girls becoming more attuned to changes inside their own body or more inclined to find diagnosis than guys, this doesn’t clarify the difference in remedies.