The Effect of Metabolic Syndrome on Colorectal Cancer Prognosis after Primary Surgery

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to explore whether metabolic syndrome (MetS) affects the prognosis of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients after primary surgery and to analyze the effect of the specific components of MetS on CRC prognosis.

Methods

The PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases were searched from inception to July 29, 2021. Overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were compared between the MetS group and the non-MetS group.

Results

The studies included in the meta-analysis included 4773 patients. All seven studies compared OS between the two groups, and after pooling all hazard ratios (HRs), no significant difference was found between the MetS group and the non-MetS group (HR = 1.17, 95% CI = 0.91 to 1.49, P = 0.21). Four studies compared DFS between the MetS group and the non-MetS group after pooling all the HRs, and there was no difference between the MetS group and the non-MetS group (HR = 1.05, 95% CI = 0.74 to 1.49, P = 0.21). Among the specific components of MetS, high fasting plasma glucose levels (HR = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.00 to 1.58, P = 0.05) had a marginally significant association with poor OS.

Conclusion

MetS may not affect the prognosis of CRC after primary surgery. However, high fasting plasma glucose levels might contribute to poor OS.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge all of the authors whose publications are referenced in our article.

Availability of Data and Materials

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Authors’ Contributions

Data extraction, Wei Tao, Chao Yuan and Bing Kang; quality assessments, Dong Peng; data analysis, Dong Peng and Wei Tao; writing-original draft, Wei Tao and Xiao-Yu Liu; writing-review and editing, Dong Peng, Yu-Xi Cheng, Wei Tao, Bin Zhang, and Zheng-Qiang Wei. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the Chongqing Key Diseases Research and Application Demonstration Program (Colorectal Cancer Prevention and Treatment Technology Research and Application Demonstration [No. 2019ZX003]).