Influence of Gender on Radiosensitivity during Radiochemotherapy of Advanced Rectal Cancer

Simple Summary In radiotherapy for rectal cancer, the treatment is identical for women and men. In recent years, the question has arisen whether there are gender differences in radiochemotherapy. We have investigated, in detail, differences between men and women, especially with regard to radiation sensitivity. We found no evidence for a difference in radiosensitivity between the sexes. Nevertheless, during radiochemotherapy, women experienced increased impairments in the quality of life, which, however, are restored in the subsequent period. One possibility is an increased sensitivity of women to chemotherapy. Gender is increasingly recognized as an important factor in medicine, although it has long been neglected in medical research in many areas. We have studied the influence of gender in advanced rectal cancer with a special focus on radiosensitivity. For this purpose, we studied a cohort of 495 men (84.1% >= T3, 63.6% N1, 17.6%, M1) and 215 women (84.2% >= T3, 56.7% N1, 22.8%, M1) who all suffered from advanced rectal cancer and were treated with radiochemotherapy. The energy deposited, DNA double-strand break (dsb) repair, occurrence of chromosomal aberrations, duration of therapy, tumor regression and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, laboratory parameters, quality of life and survival were assessed. The residual DNA dsb damage 24 h after irradiation in lymphocytes was identical in both sexes. Furthermore, chromosomal aberrations accurately reflecting radiosensitivity, were similar in both sexes. There were no gender-dependent differences in tumor regression, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and outcome indicating no differences in the radiosensitivity of cancer cells. The irradiated tumor volume in women was slightly lower than in men, related to body weight, no difference was observed. However, when the total energy deposited was calculated and related to the body weight, women were exposed to higher amounts of ionizing radiation. During radiochemotherapy, decreases in blood lymphocyte counts and albumin and several quality-of-life parameters such as nausea and vomiting, loss of appetite, and diarrhea were significantly worse in women. There is no difference in radiation sensitivity between men and women in both normal tissue and tumors. During radiochemotherapy, the quality of life deteriorates more in women than in men. However, women also recover quickly and there are no long-term differences in quality of life.