Association between metabolic syndrome and its components and incident colorectal cancer in a prospective cohort study

Obesity and early-onset colorectal cancer risk: emerging clinical evidence and biological mechanisms

Early-onset colorectal cancer (EOCRC) is defined as diagnosed at younger than 50 years of age and indicates a health burden globally. Patients with EOCRC have distinct risk factors, clinical characteristics, and molecular pathogenesis compared with older patients with CRC. Further investigations have identified different roles of obesity between EOCRC and late-onset colorectal cancer (LOCRC). Most studies have focused on the clinical characteristics of obesity in EOCRC, therefore, the mechanism involved in the association between obesity and EOCRC remains inconclusive. This review further states that obesity affects the carcinogenesis of EOCRC as well as its development and progression, which may lead to obesity-related metabolic syndrome, intestinal dysbacteriosis, and intestinal inflammation.

The effect of metabolism-related lifestyle and clinical risk factors on digestive system cancers in East Asian populations: a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis

Metabolic factors play a critical role in the development of digestive system cancers (DSCs), and East Asia has the highest incidence of malignant tumors in the digestive system. We performed a two-sample Mendelian randomization analysis to explore the associations between 19 metabolism-related lifestyle and clinical risk factors and DSCs, including esophageal, gastric, colorectal, hepatocellular, biliary tract, and pancreatic cancer. The causal association was explored for all combinations of each risk factor and each DSC. We gathered information on the instrumental variables (IVs) from various sources and retrieved outcome information from Biobank Japan (BBJ). The data were all from studies of east Asian populations. Finally, 17,572 DSCs cases and 195,745 controls were included. Our analysis found that genetically predicted alcohol drinking was a strong indicator of gastric cancer (odds ratio (OR) = 0.95; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.93-0.98) and hepatocellular carcinoma (OR = 1.11; 95% CI: 1.05-1.18), whereas coffee consumption had a potential protective effect on hepatocellular carcinoma (OR = 0.69; 95% CI: 0.53-0.90). Triglyceride was potentially associated with a decreased risk of biliary tract cancer (OR = 0.53; 95% CI: 0.34-0.81), and uric acid was associated with pancreatic cancer risk (OR = 0.59; 95% CI: 0.37-0.96). Metabolic syndrome (MetS) was associated with esophageal and gastric cancer. Additionally, there was no evidence for a causal association between other risk factors, including body mass index, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, educational levels, lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, glycine, creatinine, gout, and Graves' disease, and DSCs. The leave-one-out analysis revealed that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs671 from the ALDH2 gene has a disproportionately high contribution to the causal association between alcohol drinking and gastric cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, as well as the association between coffee consumption and hepatocellular carcinoma. The present study revealed multiple metabolism-related lifestyle and clinical risk factors and a valuable SNP rs671 for DSCs, highlighting the significance of metabolic factors in both the prevention and treatment of DSCs.

The Association of Low-Carbohydrate Diet and HECTD4 rs11066280 Polymorphism with Risk of Colorectal Cancer: A Case-Control Study in Korea

Background

Glucose is a main source of energy for tumor cells. Thus, a low-carbohydrate diet (LCD) is thought to make a significant contribution to cancer prevention. In addition, LCD and HECT domain E3 ubiquitin protein ligase 4 (HECTD4) gene may be related to insulin resistance.

Objectives

We explored whether LCD score and HECTD4 rs11066280 are etiological factors for colorectal cancer (CRC) and whether LCD score interacts with HECTD4 rs11066280 to modify CRC risk.

Methods

We included 1457 controls and 1062 cases in a case-control study. The LCD score was computed based on the proportion of energy obtained from carbohydrate, protein, and fat, as determined by a semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire. We used unconditional logistic regression models to explore the association of HECTD4 with CRC prevention and interaction of LCD score and HECTD4 polymorphism with CRC preventability.

Results

Individuals with AA/AT genotypes who carried a minor allele (A) of HECTD4 rs11066280 exhibited a decreased CRC risk [odds ratio (OR) = 0.75, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.62, 0.91]. In addition, a protective effect of high LCD score against CRC development was identified (OR = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.40, 0.68, P for trend <0.001). However, the effect of LCD depended on individual's genetic background, which appears only in participants with TT genotype of HECTD4 rs11066280 [OR = 0.49 (0.36-0.68), P interaction = 0.044].

Conclusions

Our findings suggest a protective effect of LCD and a minor allele of HECTD4 rs11066280 against CRC development. In addition, we provide an understanding of the interaction effect of LCD and HECTD4 rs11066280 on CRC, which may be helpful for establishing diet plans regarding cancer prevention.

The association of diet-dependent acid load with colorectal cancer risk: a case-control study in Korea

Acid-base disequilibrium is a contributor to cancer development because it affects molecular activities such as insulin-like growth factor 1 levels and adiponectin production. However, evidence of an association of diet-induced acid-base imbalance with colorectal cancer (CRC) is limited. We examined whether colorectal carcinogenesis is attributable to a diet with a high acid load. We recruited a total of 923 CRC cases and 1846 controls at the National Cancer Center in Korea for inclusion in a case-control study. We collected information on nutrient intake and specific clinical parameters of CRC by using a semiquantitative FFQ and medical records, respectively. Potential renal acid load (PRAL) and net endogenous acid production (NEAP) were used to estimate diet-dependent acid load. We used an unconditional logistic regression model to analyse the association. Dietary acid load scores had a positive association with the odds of CRC (OR = 2·31 (95 % CI 1·79, 2·99) and OR = 2·14 (95 % CI 1·66, 2·76) for PRAL and NEAP, respectively, Pfor trend < 0·001). A stronger positive association was observed for females (OR = 3·09, 95 % CI 1·93, 4·94) than for males (OR = 1·71, 95 % CI 1·27, 2·31). Furthermore, acidogenic diets appeared to affect rectal cancer more strongly than colon cancer in females. Our study contributes to reinforcing epidemiological evidence regarding a detrimental effect of acidogenic diets on colorectal carcinogenesis. Thus, it is important to pay attention to the balance of acidogenic (e.g. poultry and red meat) and alkalinogenic foods (e.g. fruits and vegetables) in CRC prevention, especially for females.

Metabolic syndrome and risk of colorectal cancer: A Mendelian randomization study

Background

Observational studies have previously demonstrated a significant relationship among both metabolic syndrome (Mets) and colorectal cancer (CRC). Whether there is a causal link remains controversial.

Objective

To clarify whether Mets and their components have a causal effect on colorectal cancer, we have carried out a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis (MR).

Methods

This study started from genome-wide association data for Mets and its 5 components (hypertension, waist circumference, fasting blood glucose, serum triglycerides, and serum high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) and colorectal cancer. Mendelian randomization (MR) techniques were used in the study to examine their associations.

Results

After Benjamini-Hochberg multiple corrections, genetically predicted significant causal link exists between WC (waist circumference) and CRC. The OR was 1.35 (95 % CI: 1.08-1.69; p = 0.0096). Other Mets components (HBP, FBG, TG, HDL), on the other hand, found no evidence of a genetic link between CRC and Mets. In addition, MR results showed that CRC was not causally related to either Mets or the components. We get the same result in the validated dataset.

Conclusion

According to the bidirectional MR investigation shows a significant causal relationship among obesity and CRC in the Mets component but no causal relationship in the opposite direction.

Abdominal obesity and digestive system cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies

BACKGROUND

The diagnostic criteria for abdominal obesity are usually waist circumference or waist-to-hip ratio. The magnitude of the risks for cancers of the digestive system and abdominal obesity is unknown. To assess whether abdominal obesity increases the risk of digestive cancer, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies in a database.

METHODS

PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science databases were searched from their inception to December 2022. The 9-star Newcastle Ottawa Scale was used to assess  study quality. Pooled relative risks and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using fixed or random effect models respectively. The stability of the results was explored by one-by-one exclusion. Subgroup analysis was conducted to explore sources of heterogeneity. Publication bias was evaluated by Begg's and Egger's tests.

RESULTS

A total of 43 cohort studies were included. There were 42 and 31 studies in the meta-analysis of waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio on digestive system cancer, respectively. The results of the meta-analysis revealed that the greater waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio were correlated with increased incidence of digestive system cancers: waist circumference: RR 1.48, 95% CI 1.38-1.59, p < 0.001; waist-to-hip ratio: RR 1.33, 95% CI 1.28-1.38, p = 0.001. Subgroup analysis by cancer type showed that higher WC and WHR would increase the prevalence of LC, PC, GC, EC, and CRC. The sensitivity analysis was conducted by a one-by-one elimination method, and the results of the meta-analysis remained stable. It is proved that the results were robust by the trim-and-fill method.

CONCLUSIONS

There was evidence to suggest that abdominal obesity increased the incidence of digestive cancer, it is necessary to take appropriate measures to reduce abdominal obesity. Waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio may be better predictors of digestive system cancers. However, the association between waist circumference and digestive system cancer was greater, so more attention should be paid to measuring abdominal obesity with waist circumference.

Association of tea and coffee consumption with the risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality among individuals with metabolic syndrome: a prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

The relationship between tea and coffee consumption and mortality among patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS) remains barely explored. Herein, this study aimed to examine the association between tea and coffee consumption and the likelihood of all-cause and cause-specific mortality in patients with MetS.

METHODS

A total of 118,872 participants with MetS at baseline from the UK Biobank cohort were included. Information on tea and coffee consumption was obtained during recruitment using a touchscreen questionnaire. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for mortality were determined using Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS

During a median follow-up of 13.87 years, 13,666 deaths were recorded, with 5913, 3362, and 994 deaths from cancer, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and respiratory disease (RD), respectively. This research showed a significant inverse association between tea intake and the risk of all-cause and cancer mortality, the respective HRs (95% CI) for consuming tea 2 vs. 0 cup/day were 0.89 (0.84-0.95), and 0.91 (0.83-0.99), and tea intake ≥ 4 cups/day could reduce CVD mortality by 11% (HR 0.89; 95% CI 0.81-0.98). The U-shaped nonlinear association between coffee intake and all-cause/CVD mortality was examined (all p-nonlinear < 0.001). The HRs (95% CI) for coffee consumption 1 vs. 0 cup/day were 0.93 (0.89-0.98) and 0.89 (0.80-0.99), and for ≥ 4 vs. 0 cup/day were 1.05 (1.01-1.11) and 1.13 (1.03-1.25), respectively. Notably, the combined intake of tea and coffee presented a protective effect against all-cause mortality (HR < 1).

CONCLUSIONS

The importance of daily tea and moderate coffee consumption in individuals with MetS to optimise health benefits are highlighted.

[Metabolic syndrome and gastrointestinal cancer screening]

Cancer has become a leading cause of death among patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). The more components of MetS a patient has, the higher his cancer risk is. MetS is causally associated with colorectal, pancreatic, gallbladder, biliary, hepatocellular, gastric and esophageal adenocarcinomas. MetS increases cancer mortality up to 2.4-fold. Intentional long-term weight loss reduces the excess cancer risk of obese MetS-patients. Preventing and treating the MetS together with GI cancer screening is effective and decreases the burden of GI cancer mortality significantly.

The association between prescription drugs and colorectal cancer prognosis: a nationwide cohort study using a medication-wide association study

BACKGROUND

With the availability of health insurance claim data, pharmacovigilance for various drugs has been suggested; however, it is necessary to establish an appropriate analysis method. To detect unintended drug effects and to generate new hypotheses, we conducted a hypothesis-free study to systematically examine the relationship between all prescription nonanticancer drugs and the mortality of colorectal cancer patients.

METHODS

We used the Korean National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort database. A total of 2,618 colorectal cancer patients diagnosed between 2004 and 2015 were divided into drug discovery and drug validation sets (1:1) through random sampling. Drugs were classified using the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system: 76 drugs classified as ATC level 2 and 332 drugs classified as ATC level 4 were included in the analysis. We used a Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for sex, age, colorectal cancer treatment, and comorbidities. The relationship between all prescription nonanticancer drugs and the mortality of colorectal cancer patients was analyzed, controlling for multiple comparisons with the false discovery rate.

RESULTS

We found that one ATC level-2 drug (drugs that act on the nervous system, including parasympathomimetics, addictive disorder drugs, and antivertigo drugs) showed a protective effect related to colorectal cancer prognosis. At the ATC level 4 classification, 4 drugs were significant: two had a protective effect (anticholinesterases and opioid anesthetics), and the other two had a detrimental effect (magnesium compounds and Pregnen [4] derivatives).

CONCLUSIONS

In this hypothesis-free study, we identified four drugs linked to colorectal cancer prognosis. The MWAS method can be useful in real-world data analysis.

Electrochemical sensing interface based on the oriented self-assembly of histidine labeled peptides induced by Ni2+ for protease detection

To construct an electrochemical sensing interface which was convenient for protease recognition and cleavage, we designed a strategy for directed self-assembly of histidine-tagged peptides on the electrode led by Ni²⁺ ions for electrochemical detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA). The electrode surface was first functionalized using carboxylated multiwalled carbon nanotubes and then modified with the metal ion chelating agent (5 S)-N-(5-Amino-1-carboxypentyl) iminodiacetic acid (NIA). After the Ni²⁺ was captured by NIA, the designed immune-functional peptide could be oriented assembly to the electrode interface through the imidazole ring of histidine at the tail, completing the construction of the recognition layer. Therefore, by adding the analyte PSA to identify and shear the immune-functional peptide, the ferrocene in its head was released, resulting in a reduction in the electrical signal, enabling sensitive detection. In addition, the self-assembly layer could be removed by pickling to realize the reconstruction of the recognition layer. Under optimal conditions, the electrochemical sensor had an ultralow detection limit of 11.8 fg mL^-1 for PSA, with a wide detection range from 1 pg mL^-1 to 100 ng mL^-1. In this work, an electrochemical sensing interface based on the histidine-tagged peptide induced by Ni²⁺ was formed to enable controllable oriented assembly on the electrode surface, and the recognition layer could be reconstructed via pickling, providing a potential approach for the design of repeatable interfaces.

Global burden of common cancers attributable to metabolic risks from 1990 to 2019

BACKGROUND

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is usually accompanied by metabolic syndrome, which is associated with increased risk of cancer. To inform a tailored cancer screen in patients at higher risks, we estimated the global burden of cancer attributable to metabolic risks.

METHODS

Data of common metabolism-related neoplasms (MRNs) were derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2019 database. Age-standardized, disability-adjusted life year (DALY) rates and death rates of patients with MRNs were extracted from the GBD 2019 database and stratified by metabolic risk, sex, age, and level of socio-demographic index (SDI). The annual percentage changes of age-standardized DALYs and death rates were calculated.

FINDINGS

Metabolic risks, consisting of high body mass index and fasting plasma glucose, contributed substantially to the burden of neoplasms, including colorectal cancer (CRC), tracheal, bronchus, and lung cancer (TBLC), etc. Globally, in 2019, there was an estimated age-standardized DALY rate (ASDR) of 234 (95% confidence interval [CI] 124-376) per 100,000 person years for neoplasms attributable to metabolic risks. ASDRs of MRNs were higher for CRC, TBLC, men, patients aged ≥50 years, and patients with high or high-middle SDI.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study further underpin the correlation between NAFLD and intrahepatic and extrahepatic cancers and highlight the possibility of tailored cancer screening for the NAFLD population at higher risks.

FUNDING

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China.

A comparison of machine learning models and Cox proportional hazards models regarding their ability to predict the risk of gastrointestinal cancer based on metabolic syndrome and its components

Background

Little is known about applying machine learning (ML) techniques to identify the important variables contributing to the occurrence of gastrointestinal (GI) cancer in epidemiological studies. We aimed to compare different ML models to a Cox proportional hazards (CPH) model regarding their ability to predict the risk of GI cancer based on metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components.

Methods

A total of 41,837 participants were included in a prospective cohort study. Incident cancer cases were identified by following up with participants until December 2019. We used CPH, random survival forest (RSF), survival trees (ST), gradient boosting (GB), survival support vector machine (SSVM), and extra survival trees (EST) models to explore the impact of MetS on GI cancer prediction. We used the C-index and integrated Brier score (IBS) to compare the models.

Results

In all, 540 incident GI cancer cases were identified. The GB and SSVM models exhibited comparable performance to the CPH model concerning the C-index (0.725). We also recorded a similar IBS for all models (0.017). Fasting glucose and waist circumference were considered important predictors.

Conclusions

Our study found comparably good performance concerning the C-index for the ML models and CPH model. This finding suggests that ML models may be considered another method for survival analysis when the CPH model's conditions are not satisfied.

[Metabolic syndrome and cancer risk]

Cancer has become a leading cause of death among patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS). The more components of MetS a patient has, the higher his risk of cancer. MetS is causally associated with colorectal, pancreatic, gallbladder, biliary, hepatocellular, gastric, esophageal, thyroid, breast, endometrial and renal cell cancers. MetS increases cancer mortality up to 2,4-fold. Intentional long-term weight loss reduces the excess cancer risk of obese MetS-patients. Both a low-risk lifestyle and cancer screening are effective and decrease the burden of cancer.

Krebsrisiko bei Prädiabetes und Typ-2-Diabetes mellitus

Krebs ist nun die führende Todesursache bei Typ-2-Diabetes mellitus (T2D). Prädiabetes und T2D erhöhen das Risiko für bestimmte Tumoren. Zu den Prädiabetes- bzw. T2D-assoziierten Malignomen zählen gastrointestinale, gynäkologische, urologische und endokrine Karzinome aber auch Leukämien. Prädiabetes und T2D bedingen eine 1,2- bis 2,7-fach erhöhte Krebssterblichkeit. Zugrundeliegende Mechanismen der Assoziation zwischen T2D und Krebs beinhalten die chronische Hyperglykämie, einen chronischen systemischen Entzündungszustand, oxidativen Stress, Dyslipidämie, die Insulinresistenz sowie chronisch erhöhte Spiegel von insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) und von Insulin. Eine dauerhafte Gewichtsreduktion kann das Krebsrisiko adipöser T2D-Patienten signifikant senken. Ein gesunder Lebensstil und die regelmäßige Teilnahme an Vorsorgeuntersuchungen sind wichtig und können die Krebsmortalität von Diabetespatienten erheblich verringern.