Common habitual behaviors and synchronous colorectal cancer risk: a retrospective case-control study

The association of habitual behaviors with the prevalence of synchronous colorectal cancer (sCRC) is unknown. Here, we investigated whether these behaviors, which are known risk factors for colorectal polyps, may be related to sCRC risk.

We enrolled 17,093 patients who underwent cancer treatment between January 1995 and December 2016 and examined the association of age, sex, familial history of hereditary colorectal cancer (CRC), and status of three common habitual behaviors (smoking and alcohol and coffee consumption) with the prevalence of sCRC.

Of the enrolled patients, 960 (5.6%) patients had sCRC. The independent risk factors for sCRC prevalence included advanced age, male sex, hereditary CRC, smoking, and daily alcohol consumption of more than one bottle (> 600 mL). Contrary to these factors, daily coffee consumption of more than one cup seemed to provide a protection from sCRC. In the Kaplan-Meier test, the significantly worse 5-year overall survival (OS) was noted in smokers with stage 0-III CRC. The effect of alcohol consumption on 5-year OS was significant in stages II and III. Compared with those without daily coffee consumption, patients with daily coffee consumption had significantly higher 5-year OS in stages I (93.0% vs. 86.4%), II (87.1% vs. 77.2%), III (71.5% vs. 61.9%), and IV (18.0% vs. 13.0%).

sCRC prevalence was significantly associated with habitual behaviors. Patients with smoking or with daily alcohol consumption of one bottle had higher sCRC prevalence than did those without these habits. Coffee consumption could be a protective factor for lowering sCRC risk.