title: Is gender becoming relevant in uro-oncological research? A bibliographical analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Gender differences are increasingly recognized as important in numerous diseases and found to be relevant in various cancer entities. While a larger number of manuscripts on gender effects in gastro-intestinal and pulmonary neoplasms have been published, urological malignancies involving men and women alike seem less studied in this regard. The present analysis aimed at describing the role of gender effects in general oncological and uro-oncological research and is the first such bibliometrical analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The electronic database MEDLINE was searched for relevant medical subject headings from January 1991 to December 2011. Publication types, publishing journal and impact factors were identified. Trends were assessed by linear regression.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The numbers of annual publications on all major tumour entities and on urological malignancies increased similarly. While the portion of publications on gender effects was below 1 % for each tumour entity, the annual increase of novel publications on gender effects was significant in most and prominent in pulmonary (1.87, 95 % CI 1.11-2.63; <0.0001) and colorectal neoplasms (2.16, 95 % CI 1.49-2.82; <0.0001). While the annual increase of novel publications on gender effects was significant in bladder cancer (0.33, 95 % CI 0.11-0.54; 0.005), it failed level of significance in renal cell cancer (0.25, 95 % CI -0.19-0.24; 0.82).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While the overall role of gender effect seems small in general oncological research, it is increasing steadily. In uro-oncological research, such trend is also visible in bladder but not in renal cell cancer. Respective awareness on importance of gender effects should be raised.
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kunath
authors.forename: Bastian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Keck
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bertz
authors.forename: Sabine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brookman-May
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: May
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vergho
authors.forename: Arndt
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Hubertus
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Riedmiller
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wullich
authors.forename: Maximilian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Burger
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D002292:Carcinoma, Renal Cell; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011642:Publications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D001749:Urinary Bladder Neoplasms; D014571:Urologic Neoplasms