Pre- and postoperative characteristics of metabolic syndrome in patients with colorectal cancer

Abstract

The pathological mechanisms that link the metabolic syndrome (MS) and colorectal cancer (CRC) are most probably related to abdominal obesity and insulin resistance. This study aimed to assess the relationship between MS and its clinical characteristics, with CRC. We investigated the changes in the appearance of MS features three months after surgical treatment, and its relationship with the concentration of tumor and inflammation markers. The retrospective cohort study was performed on 193 patients who were diagnosed with CRC and consequently surgically treated (at the Department of General Surgery, Clinical Hospital Center “Bežanijska kosa”, Belgrade). The included patients were divided into two groups based on the presence of MS. Body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, blood pressure, blood glucose, triglycerides (TG), high density lipoproteins - cholesterol (HDL-C), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), A-fetoprotein (AFP), carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-90) and C-reactive protein (CRP) were analyzed at the time when the CRC diagnosis was made and three months after surgery. We observed a significant decrease in the number of patients with MS three months postoperatively compared to the number of patients in the preoperative period (106 versus 81; p<0.001). CRP levels were significantly decreased postoperatively compared to the preoperative period in patients with MS (p<0.001). AFP concentrations were significantly decreased (p<0.001), while CEA and CA 19-9 were significantly increased postoperatively compared to preoperatively (p<0.001, p<0.001). Further studies should be conducted in order to examine the influence of MS and its characteristics solely on CRC prognosis and its overall effect on CRC treatment.