Gender differences in clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of rectal cancer patients under 50 years old / 国际外科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore whether there are gender differences in clinical and pathological characteristics and prognosis of young patients with rectal cancer (under 50 years old), and to analyze the risk factors affecting the prognosis of young patients with rectal cancer.Methods:The medical records of 85 young rectal cancer patients admitted to Beijing Friendship Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University from January 2015 to December 2020 were retrospectively collected. According to gender, they were divided into male group ( n=50) and female group ( n=35). The age was (43.67±5.50) years old, ranging from 26 to 50 years old. Primary outcome measures were sex, disease-free survival, and overall survival. Secondary outcomes were family history, body mass index (BMI), clinical stage, anemia, whether the female patient was menopausal, whether the female patient took oral estrogen, the location of the primary lesion, whether neoadjuvant therapy was performed, pathological stage, whether accompanied with vascular nerve invasion, and whether postoperative adjuvant therapy was performed. R4.0.2 software was used for statistical analysis. The measurement data with normal distribution in the collected data were expressed as mean±standard deviation ( ± s), and the comparison between groups was analyzed by t test. Count data were expressed as constituent ratio, and analyzed using the chi-square test or Fisher′s exact test. The survival curve was drawn by Kaplan-Meier method, and the difference in survival rate was tested by Log-rank test. Factors with statistical significance in univariate analysis were included in COX proportional regression model for multivariate analysis to screen independent risk factors affecting overall survival. Results:Compared with male patients, a higher proportion of young female patients with rectal cancer were diagnosed with anemia before surgery (42.9% vs 22.0%, P=0.040). The 1-year, 3-year and 5-year overall survival rates were 94.3%, 80.0% and 68.6% in young female patients, and 98.0%, 90.0% and 90.0% in young male patients, respectively. The median disease-free surival was 31.6 months for women and 34.4 months for men. Multivariate analysis showed that female( HR=3.799, 95% CI 1.312-11.002, P=0.014)and BMI( HR=0.846, 95% CI 0.724-0.989, P=0.036)were independent risk factors affecting the prognosis of young patients with rectal cancer. Conclusions:Young female patients have a worse prognosis than male patients. Female and BMI are independent risk factors for the prognosis of young rectal cancer patients, and gender should be the key research object of observation in young rectal cancer patients.