Cancer and circulatory diseases key data

Compiled by Men’s Health Forum, March 2013

Cancer

Cancer is more common in men than women.

In the UK in 2010, the European age-standardised incidence rates were 425.5 per 100,000 males and 374.0 per 100,000 females. Men therefore have a 14% higher risk of developing cancer. The mortality rates in 2010 were 201.6 for males and 146.8 for females. Men therefore have a 37% higher risk of dying from cancer (Reference: Cancer Research UK).

An analysis of the cancers that men and women ‘share’ (i.e. all the cancers except the sex-specific cancers and breast cancer, which is very rare in men) shows that men are 56% more likely to develop one of these cancers and 67% more likely to die (Reference: Cancer Research UK).

The five most common cancers in men were prostate (25% of all male cancer cases), lung (14%), bowel (14%), bladder (5%) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (4%). The five most common causes of male cancer death were: lung (24% of all male cancer deaths), prostate (13%), bowel (10%), oesophagus (6%) and pancreas (5%) (Reference: Cancer Research UK).

Circulatory diseases

Although more women than men in the UK die from all diseases of the circulatory system (including stroke), men are more likely to die prematurely.

In the UK in 2010, 49% of all age deaths from circulatory diseases were male as were 58% of all age deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD) alone (Reference: BHF).

An analysis of premature (under 75 years) deaths specifically shows that 68% of all circulatory disease deaths were male as were 75% of CHD deaths and 56% of stroke deaths (Reference: BHF).

The age-specific death rate per 100,000 population from CHD in the UK in 2010 was 15 for men and 4 for women in the 35-44 age group, 62 for men and 14 for women in the 45-54 group, 165 for men and 40 for women in the 55-64 group, and 396 for men and 148 for women in the 65-74 group (Reference: BHF).

In England in 2010, the death rate from myocardial infarction per 100,000 population for men under 75 was 20.3 and for women 6.3 (Reference: BHF).