June 22, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Those engaged in the fight against cancer are always looking for risk factors – behaviors which make one person more likely to have cancer than another. A study published in May, 2011 in the journal Cancer, discovered such a risk factor. In a large study, 8.25 percent of men who self-identify as gay were cancer survivors, versus 5.04 percent of men who self identified as heterosexual.[1] This is a very significant difference and those who reported on it seemed surprised, which is really surprising since such a difference is totally predictable.

Gay men are more likely to smoke (a risk for lung cancer), far more likely to contract a sexually transmitted disease, such as human papilloma virus (a risk for anal cancer) or hepatitis (a risk for liver cancer) or HIV/AIDS (a risk for a score of different cancers). They are more likely to begin sexual activity at an earlier age, to abuse drugs and alcohol, to be depressed or suffer from other psychological disorders, all of which affect health and often delay the seeking medical care.

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