Can Losing Your Y Chromosome Accelerate Cancer Growth?

 As men get older, they tend to lose their Y chromosome. The loss of this chromosome could potentially cause men to have an increased risk of certain cancers. This is because cancer cells will have an easier time avoiding the body's immune system, which prevents them from multiplying. However, the cancers that multiply easier with the loss of the Y chromosome are more vulnerable to immune checkpoint inhibitors. These inhibitors are drugs that are commonly used to destroy tumor cells. Unfortunately, men who lost their Y chromosome were noted to have a poorer prognosis for bladder cancer than men who still have it. Which is likely because when the Y chromosome is lost, cells exhaust the T cells needed to combat tumor growth, which results in cancer spreading more aggressively. The correlation between losing a Y chromosome and T cell exhaustion needs to be investigated in greater detail. If this correlation could be understood, drugs could potentially be produced to reverse this process from happening.