Men more likely to leave than women after cancer diagnosis

Men are more likely to divorce a spouse diagnosed with cancer than are women, according to a study of partner abandonment co-authored by a Seattle cancer specialist. 

Researchers were surprised that when a woman was the cancer patient, she was likely to be abandoned by her spouse 20.8 percent of the time.  When the man was the patient, the study said, he was likely to be abandoned less than 3 percent of the time. Overall the divorce rate, confirmed as in other studies, was 11.6 percent.

"Female gender was the strongest predictor of separation or divorce in each of the patient groups we studied," the study's co-author, Dr. Mark Chamberlain said.  Chamberlain is director of neuro-oncology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and a professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the University of Washington School of Medicine.

He co-wrote the study, "Gender disparity in the rate of partner abandonment in patients with serious medical illness," with Dr. Michael Glanz of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah School of Medicine. The study was published in the journal Cancer on Nov. 15.

Read the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance's release on the study here.