Young Patients With Colorectal Cancer Have Higher Early Mortality but Better Long-Term Survival.

INTRODUCTION: To define the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) in young patients and to compare their postoperative treatment with that of older patients. METHODS: This multicenter study enrolled 5,457 patients with primary CRC who underwent surgical resection. The overall survival (OS), clinicopathologic characteristics, and postoperative treatment of 253 young patients aged 18-44 years and 5,204 older patients aged 44-80 years were analyzed. RESULTS: The OS rate was 77.1% for young and 74.2% for older patients (P = 0.348). Landmark analysis showed a significant difference in survival between young and older patients, with 63.8% of deaths among young patients being within 25 months of surgery compared with 42.4% among older patients (P = 0.002). Among those who survived more than 25 months, young patients had significantly better survival than older patients (P = 0.009). Multivariable analysis of young patients revealed that the tumor location, perineural invasion, and stage were associated with poor survival within 25 months; after this period, stage was the only prognostic marker. Young patients were more likely to receive chemotherapy, particularly multiagent regimens. For young patients, no significant difference in OS was found based on the chemotherapy regimen, regardless of disease stage (II, III, or IV, all P > 0.05). In addition, unlike in older patients, no difference in OS was found in young patients regardless of the drug regimen administered (all P > 0.05). DISCUSSION: Young-onset CRC may have a unique disease biology that warrants further research and therapy development.

[Design and control of in vitro pulse modulated microwave exposure system].

This paper presents the design and development of a set of microwave exposure system based on 1.8GHz mobile RF signal. This system can work on several modulation types to do microwave exposure experiment under different specific absorption rate (SAR) and prepare the way for researches in the effect exerted by the electromagnetic signal of mobile on human health. The hardware is made up of several RF instruments, waveguide and computer, and the software introduces the accomplishment of the control system and the algorithm of control.