健康英语新闻:Gay men at higher risk for cancer

BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Researchers from California, Unated States, found that sexual orientation could play a role in cancer and more gay men are reported being cancer survivors than straight men, according to findings in the journal Cancer online Monday.

The researchers found that gay men are 1.9 times more likely than straight men to report having had cancer.

They also found that lesbian and bisexual women are more than twice as likely as heterosexual women to report fair or poor health after having cancer.

Researchers looked at three years of responses to the California Health Interview survey, which included more than 120,000 adults living in the state.

Among other health-related questions, participants were asked if they had ever been diagnosed with cancer and whether they identified as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or straight.

Out of 51,000 men, about 3,700 said they had been diagnosed with cancer as an adult. While over 8 percent of gay men reported a history of cancer, that figure was only 5 percent in straight men, a disparity that could not be attributed to differences in race, age or income.

About 7,300 out of 71,000 women in the study had been diagnosed with cancer, but overall cancer rates did not differ among lesbian, bisexual, and straight women.

Ulrike Boehmer, the study's lead author from the Boston University School of Public Health, said higher rates of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) may be related to the increased risk of cancer in gay men.

However, the findings do not necessarily mean that being gay, lesbian or bisexual increases risk of cancer, said the researcher.