Risk for coronary heart disease increases risk for colorectal neoplasm

Colorectal neoplasms and coronary artery disease have similar risk factors. Patients with established coronary artery disease have a high prevalence of colorectal neoplasms. However, little is known about the risk of colorectal neoplasms among individuals at risk for coronary artery disease.

We performed a cross-sectional study of 3144 asymptomatic, average-risk individuals without history of coronary artery disease or other vascular disorders who received a screening colonoscopy examination from January to December 2010 at Konkuk University Medical Center in Seoul, Korea. Participants were classified as having low (<10%), intermediate (10%-20%), or high (≥20%) risk for developing coronary artery disease in the next 10 years, which was based on Framingham/Adult Treatment Panel III risk scores.

The prevalence of colorectal neoplasms in subjects with low, intermediate, and high risk for coronary artery disease was 25.6% (635/2485), 46.6% (252/541), and 53.4% (63/118), respectively (P < .001); the prevalence of advanced colorectal neoplasms was 4.9% (122/2485), 9.2% (50/541), and 17.8% (21/118), respectively, for these subjects (P < .001). In multivariate analyses, the high-risk group had a significantly increased risk of advanced colorectal neoplasm (odds ratio, 3.31; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.94-5.65), compared with the low-risk group. The numbers of colonoscopies needed to identify individuals with advanced colorectal neoplasms in intermediate-risk and high-risk groups were 10.8 (95% CI, 8.6-14.7) and 5.6 (95% CI, 7.6-11.9), respectively, which were significantly lower than for the low-risk group (20.4; 95% CI, 17.4-24.6).

The prevalence and the risk of overall and advanced colorectal neoplasms increase with risk of coronary artery disease. Individuals with a 10-year risk of coronary artery disease ≥10% might benefit from colonoscopy screening, but further studies are needed to confirm and generalize these results.