Men are from Mars.

Despite long recognizing elusive differences exist between men and women—including in their immune responses—no one has ever mentioned that women may not be enjoying the same benefits of cancer immunotherapy as their male counterparts. Until now. A meta-analysis of 20 randomized trials of immune checkpoint inhibitors versus standard therapy was conducted to see if there are, in fact, any potential differences in treatment responses based on gender. Short answer: sure looks like it. The combined hazard ratio for death for men treated with immunotherapy was significantly lower (HR 0.72) than that achieved by women (HR 0.86). By the by, this could have gone unnoticed for so long since only one-third of the >11K enrollees were women. TBL: Immunotherapy may work differently in women than in men, but it’s hard to say without representative trial enrollment. | Conforti, Lancet Oncol 2018