Vavalà Tiziana, Catino Annamaria, Pizzutilo Pamela, Longo Vito, Galetta Domenico
ASL CN1, Struttura Complessa di Oncologia, Ospedale di Savigliano, Via Ospedali 9, 12038 Savigliano, Italy.
Thoracic Oncology, IRCCS Istituto Tumori "Giovanni Paolo II", Viale O. Flacco 65, 70124 Bari, Italy.
Int J Mol Sci. 2021 Nov 4;22(21):11942. doi: 10.3390/ijms222111942.
In developed countries, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in both sexes. Although cigarette smoking represents the principal risk factor for lung cancer in females, the higher proportion of this neoplasm among non-smoking women as compared with non-smoking men implies distinctive biological aspects between the two sexes. Gender differences depend not only on genetic, environmental, and hormonal factors but also on the immune system, and all these aspects are closely interconnected. In the last few years, it has been confirmed that the immune system plays a fundamental role in cancer evolution and response to oncological treatments, specifically immunotherapy, with documented distinctions between men and women. Consequently, in order to correctly assess cancer responses and disease control, considering only age and reproductive status, the results of studies conducted in female patients would probably not categorically apply to male patients and vice versa. The aim of this article is to review recent data about gender disparities in both healthy subjects' immune system and lung cancer patients; furthermore, studies concerning gender differences in response to lung cancer immunotherapy are examined.
在发达国家，肺癌是两性中癌症相关死亡的主要原因。尽管吸烟是女性肺癌的主要危险因素，但与不吸烟男性相比，非吸烟女性中这种肿瘤的比例更高，这意味着两性之间存在独特的生物学特征。性别差异不仅取决于遗传、环境和激素因素，还取决于免疫系统，而所有这些方面都紧密相连。在过去几年中，已经证实免疫系统在癌症进展和对肿瘤治疗（特别是免疫疗法）的反应中起着重要作用，并且男女之间存在明显差异。因此，为了正确评估癌症反应和疾病控制情况，仅考虑年龄和生殖状态，在女性患者中进行的研究结果可能无法完全适用于男性患者，反之亦然。本文的目的是综述有关健康受试者免疫系统和肺癌患者性别差异的最新数据；此外，还将探讨有关肺癌免疫治疗反应中性别差异的研究。
