Metabolic syndrome is an important factor for the evolution of prognosis of colorectal cancer: survival, recurrence, and liver metastasis.

BACKGROUND

Several studies have shown that metabolic syndrome (MS) was a risk factor for colorectal cancer, but few studies have reported the relationship between MS and the prognosis of colorectal cancer.

METHODS

Data were collected from 507 cases of colorectal carcinoma between January 2002 and March 2007 to establish the database. These patients were divided into 2 groups based on the presence of MS. We tested the prognostic value of MS in the patients. The risk of adverse events was examined by Cox proportional hazard modeling.

RESULTS

The rates of liver metastasis and tumor recurrence were higher in the group of patients with colorectal cancer accompanied by MS. Moreover, MS is one of the important elements that independently can influence the survival (colonic carcinoma: hazard ratio [HR], 1.633; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.039-2.565; rectal carcinoma: HR, 1.939, 95% CI, 1.076-3.494) and liver metastasis (colonic carcinoma: HR, 2.619; 95% CI, 1.288-5.324; rectal carcinoma: HR, 2.814; 95% CI, .962-2.888) of both colonic and rectal carcinoma patients, and MS patients have the highest risk with worse survival and liver metastases compared with other parameters.

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggest that MS may be an important prognostic factor for colorectal cancer, decreasing the incidence of MS may improve the therapeutic efficacy of colorectal cancer.