Effect of metabolic syndrome and its components on survival in colorectal cancer: a prospective study

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) may affect prognosis of the patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC).

This study was aimed to design a model and to examine the prognostic effect of MetS on survival time in the patients with CRC.

Data were collected from 1127 cases of CRC from Cancer Registry Center of the Research Institute of Gastroenterology and Liver Disease, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. In this cohort study, patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of MetS. We tested the prognostic value of MetS in the patients by Cox proportional hazard modeling.

Mean ± standard deviation of the patients' age at diagnosis in MetS group and non-MetS group was 56 ± 13 years old and 53 ± 15 years old respectively. Tumor stage as an independent variable affected CRC survival. The mean survival time of the MetS and non-MetS groups was 23 and 27 months respectively. Independent variables like tumor stage (hazard ratio [HR], 1.76; 95% CI, 0.29-0.90) and educational level (HR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.23-0.97) had significant effect on CRC survival and MetS (HR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.52-1.5), tumor size (HR, 1.390; 95% CI, 1.237-1.560), family history, age, gender, and smoking had non-significant effect on CRC survival.

MetS could be a prognostic factor for survival in the patients with CRC. The results suggested that effect of MetS was not significant.