Women experience more symptomatic and haematologic adverse events from cancer treatments than men, especially from immunotherapy, a retrospective analysis has found.

Although between-sex differences in chemotherapy toxicity have been demonstrated in the past, the US researchers said there had been a gap in the literature regarding modern treatments.

“If confirmed by others, these findings would indicate that the sex of patients with cancer would be one variable to consider when assessing treatment risks,” said study author Dr Joseph Unger (PhD) from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Dr Unger and colleagues analysed treatment-related adverse events by sex in US phase II and III clinical trials conducted from 1980 to 2019, excluding sex-specific cancers.