Bridging the gender gap in childhood cancer: a call to action

Starting at birth, large numbers of sex-selective abortions in some parts of India lead to skewed gender ratios in the general population.2 The biases against girls in India are often firmly entrenched in the sociocultural milieu, and extend to multiple aspects of health care.3 Consequently, there i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The lancet oncology 2023-01, Vol.24 (1), p.3-4
Main Authors: Prasad, Maya, Arora, Ramandeep Singh
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bias
Cancer
Child
Children
Children & youth
Diagnosis
Empowerment
Expenditures
Gender
Hematopoietic stem cells
Humans
Neoplasms - epidemiology
Neoplasms - therapy
Registration
Sex discrimination
Sex Factors
Sex ratio
Society
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:Starting at birth, large numbers of sex-selective abortions in some parts of India lead to skewed gender ratios in the general population.2 The biases against girls in India are often firmly entrenched in the sociocultural milieu, and extend to multiple aspects of health care.3 Consequently, there is a gender differential in infant and under-5 mortality. 4,5 In The Lancet Oncology, Kanu Priya Bhatia and colleagues systematically document a definite gender bias in favour of boys with cancer in India. IndianFaces/Shutterstock.com Using data from three hospital-based cancer registries, Bhatia and colleagues also show that the male bias was more pronounced at registration or diagnosis, but was not apparent for treatment (after taking into account sex ratio at diagnosis).6 This is a positive finding and would need validation from other cohort studies. Treatment abandonment, which is a major cause of treatment failure in resource-poor settings, has been reported to be higher in girls with cancer in India than in boys, suggesting a challenge in accessing treatment even after diagnosis, with low literacy and poor socioeconomic status being key determinants.7,8 Notably, according to Bhatia and colleagues' findings, fewer girls than boys underwent haematopoietic stem cell transplant, even after adjusting for the sex ratio at diagnosis.
ISSN:1470-2045
1474-5488
DOI:10.1016/S1470-2045(22)00741-0