Women More Likely to Survive Melanoma Than Men: Study Analysis
found female patients had a 30% survival advantage TUESDAY, May
1 (HealthDay News) -- When it comes to surviving the skin cancer
known as melanoma, nature appears to have dealt women a better
hand than men, new research suggests. By almost every measure,
an analysis of four European studies found that women can expect
a 30 percent better outcome than men following an early stage
melanoma diagnosis. That gap, researchers say, may be rooted in
basic differences in gender biology. "The 30 percent advantage
applies to survival," said study author Dr. Arjen Joosse, from
the department of public health at Erasmus University Medical
Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. "It also applies to having
a metastasis [spread]: women have a 30 percent lower chance to
experience a metastasis to the lymph nodes and to other organs."
Joosse and colleagues from Belgium, Switzerland, Germany and
France published their findings in the April 30 online edition
of the Jou