Amultitude of well-studied factors influence a persons susceptibility to cancer - genetic background, chemical exposure, diet and behaviour all contribute. But one factor that seems to play a major part in malignancy has received surprisingly short shrift from scientists: whether someone is male or female. Some cancers, such as prostate or ovarian cancer, are by their very nature limited to men or women, and others, such as breast cancer, have a known connection to sex hormones. But even cancers with no clear association to sex disproportionately affect males or females for reasons that no one yet fully understands. On balance, men get the worse lot: a sizeable list of cancer types are more common in men than women, as is cancer overall.
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