Metabolic syndrome and esophageal cancer risk: a systematic review and meta‑analysis

Many clinical studies evaluating the relationship between metabolic syndrome and esophageal cancer yielded uncertain results. The purpose of this study is to systematically assess the relationship between metabolic syndrome and esophageal cancer.

We searched clinical studies on metabolic syndrome and esophageal cancer risk in PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library. Meta-analysis was conducted by RevMan 5.3 softwares.

A total of four cohort studies and two case-control studies met eligibility criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. Meta-analysis using a fixed-effect model indicated that MetS was related with a higher risk of EC (OR: 1.16, 95% CI 1.08-1.25). Subgroup analyses grouped by pathological types showed that MetS was related with a higher risk of EAC (OR: 1.19, 95% CI 1.10-1.28). Subgroup analyses grouped by metabolic conditions showed hyperglycemia (OR: 1.12, 95% CI 1.03-1.21),hypertension (OR: 1.23, 95% CI 1.04-1.46), obesity (OR: 1.40, 95% CI 1.22-1.60, P < 0.05) were related with a higher risk of EAC.

Overall, our meta-analysis provides high quality evidence that metabolic syndrome was related with a higher risk of EAC. Among the individual components of the metabolic syndrome, hyperglycemia, hypertension and obesity may be the key factors.