Esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA) incidence is 4-8 times higher in men compared with women, yet this imbalance cannot be explained by known risk factors. This issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology features results from only the second prospective study to assess whether prediagnostic sex steroid hormones underlie sex differences in EA. Xie et al. report that higher concentrations of testosterone and luteinizing hormone were associated with decreased EA risk. While contrary to the long-standing hypothesis that testosterone increases EA risk, these important results lay a foundation for additional studies to further elucidate this intuitive, intriguing, and evolving hypothesis.

中文翻译：

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性激素是癌症发病率性别差异的基础吗？测试食管腺癌的直觉。

男性食管腺癌 (EA) 的发病率是女性的 4-8 倍，但这种不平衡不能用已知的危险因素来解释。本期《美国胃肠病学杂志》仅是第二项前瞻性研究的结果，该研究旨在评估诊断前的性类固醇激素是否是 EA 性别差异的基础。谢等人。报告说，较高浓度的睾酮和促黄体激素与 EA 风险降低有关。虽然与睾酮增加 EA 风险的长期假设相反，但这些重要结果为进一步阐明这一直观、有趣和不断发展的假设的进一步研究奠定了基础。