The role of gender and other factors in the prognosis of young patients with colorectal cancer.

Fifty patients from a socioeconomically disadvantaged population who were diagnosed when younger than 40 with colorectal cancer between 1968 and 1978 were analyzed. These patients had an increased survival compared with their older counterparts aged 40 years and older who were diagnosed during the same time. The young women had significantly better survival than the young men. Advanced stages, distribution of primary sites, and precancerous conditions were not major factors. The fact that the younger patients' cancers had a higher incidence of extracellular mucin production may have been counterbalanced by their receiving more extensive treatment. At the same time, cultural and social factors related to gender may have more to do with better survival than do factors evaluated in previous studies. In fact, because of the pervasive lack of male/female analysis, it is not known whether the survival difference due to gender found in this report is a universal tendency in young populations.