Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, Washington University School of Medicine, CB 8208, 660 South Euclid Ave, St Louis, MO 63110, USA.
Biol Sex Differ. 2012 Jan 25;3:3. doi: 10.1186/2042-6410-3-3.
It is often reported that brain tumors occur more frequently in males, and that males suffer a worse outcome from brain tumors than females. If correct, these observations suggest that sex plays a fundamental role in brain tumor biology. The following review of the literature regarding primary and metastatic brain tumors, reveals that brain tumors do occur more frequently in males compared to females regardless of age, tumor histology, or region of the world. Sexually dimorphic mechanisms that might control tumor cell biology, as well as immune and brain microenvironmental responses to cancer, are explored as the basis for this sex disparity. Elucidating the mechanisms by which sex chromosomes and sex hormones impact on brain tumorigenesis and progression will advance our understanding of basic cancer biology and is likely to be essential for optimizing the care of brain tumor patients.
据报道，脑肿瘤在男性中更为常见，而且男性的脑肿瘤预后比女性差。如果这些观察结果是正确的，那么这些观察结果表明性别在脑肿瘤生物学中起着至关重要的作用。对原发性和转移性脑肿瘤的文献进行回顾，揭示了无论年龄、肿瘤组织学或世界区域如何，脑肿瘤在男性中的发生率均高于女性。探索控制肿瘤细胞生物学、免疫和大脑微环境对癌症反应的性别二态机制，作为这种性别差异的基础。阐明性染色体和性激素影响脑肿瘤发生和进展的机制将有助于我们深入了解癌症生物学的基本原理，并且可能对于优化脑肿瘤患者的护理至关重要。
