The singles community might be surprised—and a bit concerned—by a recent study from the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, which suggests adults who have not been married have a higher risk of developing cancer than those who are married.
The study analyzed over 4 million cases, and the increased risk spans nearly every major cancer type and is also widely connected to preventable cancers linked to infections, smoking, and reproductive factors.
The research team reviewed cancer data from 12 U.S. states, covering over 4 million infectious cases in a population of over 100 million people between 2015 and 2022. Marital status was divided into “married or previously married” (including married, divorced, and widowed) compared to “never married.” The study included adults aged 30 or older and accounted for sex, race, and age.
Paulo Pinheiro, Ph.D., study co-author and a Sylvester physician-scientist whose lab conducts population-based cancer epidemiology, said in a statement, “These findings suggest that social factors such as marital status may serve as important markers of cancer risk at the population level.”
However, the research team would like to stress that their findings do not mean that simply getting married can be viewed as a preventative measure against cancer.
“It means that if you’re not married, you should be paying extra attention to cancer risk factors, getting any screenings you may need, and staying up to date on health care,” said Frank Penedo, Ph.D., associate director for population sciences and director of the Sylvester Survivorship and Supportive Care Institute (SSCI).
“For prevention efforts, our findings point to the importance of targeting cancer risk awareness and prevention strategies with attention to marital status,” he added.
Previous studies largely focused on outcomes after a cancer diagnosis, showing that married individuals tend to be diagnosed earlier and have better survival rates. This study, however, was tasked to find out and discover whether marital status influences the development of cancer in the first place.
“We wanted to know who is more likely to get cancer: married people or unmarried people?” Pinheiro said.
The Findings
The research team was surprised by the findings, and when diving more deeply into the types of cancers, the team discovered that men who were never married had about five times the rate of anal cancers compared with married men. On the other hand, never-married women had nearly three times the rate of cervical cancer compared with married women. Both cancers are linked to HPV infection.
Men and women showed slightly different patterns than the researchers initially imagined. Never-married men were roughly 70% more likely to develop cancer, while never-married women were about 85% more likely. The strongest connection was in women, reproductive cancers such as ovarian and endometrial cancer, and the other was cancers related to infection, smoking, and alcohol.
“It’s a clear and powerful signal that some individuals are at a greater risk,” Penedo said.
Racial differences were taken into consideration, and noted that black men who never married had the overall highest cancer rate, compared to married black men. However, black married men had lower rates of cancer than white married men.
There are limitations of this study, including lifestyle differences that might affect both marriage and cancer risks, and the exclusion of unmarried individuals in long-term partnerships.
“But the association between marriage status and cancer risk is an interesting, new observation that deserves more research,” Pinheiro said.
This study was published on April 8th in Cancer Research Communications.
Chrissy Newton is a PR professional and the founder of VOCAB Communications. She currently appears on The Discovery Channel and Max and hosts the Rebelliously Curious podcast, which can be found on YouTube and on all audio podcast streaming platforms. Follow her on X: @ChrissyNewton, Instagram: @BeingChrissyNewton, and chrissynewton.com. To contact Chrissy with a story, please email chrissy @ thedebrief.org.