Incidence and long-term outcome of young patients with gastric carcinoma according to sex: does hormonal status affect prognosis?
Only tumor differentiation was an important difference between the 2 age groups, and prognosis was not affected by age. However, when sex was added to age as a factor, the older male and young female groups had an unfavorable prognosis. Therefore, we propose that sex hormones such as estrogens contribute to the survival differences, and further studies are needed to confirm this possibility.
A normal TWA test identifies one-third of NIDCM patients who have a very good prognosis and are unlikely to significantly benefit from ICD therapy. A randomized clinical trial evaluating the utility of TWA in guiding therapy seems warranted, possibly a noninferiority trial of medical therapy only versus ICD in TWA-negative patients.