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Women diagnosed with cancer have higher survival rate than men with the disease, reports a recent study conducted in Canada. It is observed that risk of death in women with cancer is 13 percent less when compared to men.

Women have high survival rate than men for 13 out of 18 cancers, reports statistics Canada. Eighteen cancers taken into account are the ones common between both the genders and don't include sex-specific ones like prostate and uterine cancers. Though the significant difference in the risk of death between men and women with cancer could be established, the reason behind the scenario is not clearly understood.

Women were found to have 69 percent reduced risk of death in thyroid cancer, 48 percent lower risk in skin melanoma and 35 percent lower risk in Hodgkin lymphoma than in men. Researchers assume that high survival rate in women might be because of their health conscious nature resulting in early diagnosis of the disease.

"It's a very promising area of research," said President of CancerCare Manitoba Dr. Sri Navaratnam. "It's interesting... women are more susceptible to lung cancer, but when they get it they do better (than men). If there is a certain gene or molecule contributing to (women) doing better after diagnosis, we can look at targeting that for different treatment options," Navaratnam added, noted Winnipig Free Press.

While women had better survival rate after diagnosis in most cancers than men, bladder cancer was found to be an exception. It was observed that men had 23 percent higher survival rate than women, as far as bladder cancer is concerned.

Bladder cancer diagnosis could be delayed in women than in men since the incidence of the disease in women is low, reasoned Larry Ellison, an epidemiologist involved in the study, on the increased risk of death due to bladder cancer in woman than men.

"[Findings] It tells us we need to look at the way we look at health and the way we approach health-care delivery differently to make sure that survival rates do improve," said Robert Nuttall, assistant director for health policy at the Canadian Cancer Society in Toronto, reported CBC News. "In the case of men versus women, it can influence the way we encourage men to do adopt healthier behaviours or to seek out medical attention earlier."