You probably recall a study we posted last month about the declining odds of surviving cancer among people who were married but separated from their spouses after receiving their diagnosis. Apparently, gender plays a key role when married couples face a cancer diagnosis, often leaving women out in the cold.

Although the rate of separation or divorce among cancer patients was similar to the general population (11.6 percent), scientists discovered divorce or separation was six times more common when a woman received the bad news, after monitoring more than 500 patients divided among three groups who were diagnosed with cancer or multiple sclerosis from 2001-06.

Overall, divorce was the probable outcome when the wife was the patient in two of the three groups monitored (multiple sclerosis and those with tumors not connected to the central nervous system) by at least 93 percent. Age was also a factor: The older a female cancer patient, the more likely her relationship would end.

Conversely, less than 3 percent of male patients became divorced or separated from their wives after a cancer diagnosis during the course of the study.

The tiny sliver of good news to be found in this study stems from longevity. The longer a couple was married, the more likely their relationship would survive the problems cancer presented them.

Cancer, Vol. 115, No. 22, pp. 5237-5242, November 15, 2009

Newsweek November 16, 2009

Yahoo News November 11, 2009

EurekAlert November 10, 2009