A major international study led by researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science at the University of Oxford, has found that female reproductive cancers significantly reduce women’s overall survival advantage in low-mortality countries.
The research, published in JAMA Network Open, examines how breast and gynaecological cancers shape the long-standing gap in longevity between women and men. While women generally live longer than men across high-income countries, the study shows that cancers unique to women meaningfully offset this advantage during midlife.
Drawing on mortality data covering 264 million deaths across 20 countries between 1955 and 2020, the international team applied advanced demographic methods to assess how removing female reproductive cancers would alter overall survival patterns.
The findings show that between ages 35 and 60, women experience elevated mortality from breast and gynecological cancers that narrows the female survival advantage. Across countries, eliminating these cancers would increase women’s survival advantage by an average of approximately 0.8 years, with even larger gains in some settings.
As part of the research team, Wen Su from Oxford’s Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science explains that “although women continue to outlive men in most high-income countries, our results show that cancers specific to women substantially reduce this advantage during key adult years.”
The study uses a demographic indicator known as the truncated cross-sectional average length of life (TCAL), which incorporates mortality conditions experienced by multiple birth cohorts, rather than relying solely on conventional period life expectancy. This approach allows researchers to capture the longer-term effects of cause-specific mortality on population survival.
The authors note that the midlife concentration of female reproductive cancer mortality has been remarkably persistent across generations. As the paper emphasises, sustained investment in prevention, screening, and treatment remains crucial. Wen Su, co-author of the paper, explains that these cancers don’t eliminate women’s survival advantage, but they measurably constrain it. This has implications not only for individual health but also for population ageing and demographic change more broadly.
The study highlights how cause-specific mortality shapes sex differences in longevity and underscores the importance of continued global efforts to reduce cancer mortality.
The full article, Female Reproductive Cancers and the Sex Gap in Survival, is published open access in JAMA Network Open.
Canudas-Romo, Vladimir., Wen. Su, Emily. Banks and Sergey. Timonin (2026). "Female Reproductive Cancers and the Sex Gap in Survival." JAMA Network Open 9(3): e261256-e261256. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.1256
