What are the risk factors of sporadic colorectal cancer?

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers in China. Although the association between the epidemiological factors and sporadic colorectal cancer has been studied, the relation between smoking, alcohol drinking, family history of cancer, body mass index (BMI) and sporadic colorectal cancer still remains uncertain. So it is important to investigate the role of these factors in the development of sporadic colorectal cancer. A research team led by Professor Jian-Ping Wang from the Gastrointestinal Institute of Sun Yat-Sen University addressed this question. Their study will be published on May 28, 2009 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology

They conducted a hospital-based case-control study from July 2002 to December 2008 in Guangzhou city. There were 706 cases and 723 controls with their sex and age (within 5 years) matched. An unconditional logistic regression model was used to analyze the association between smoking, alcohol drinking, family history of cancer, BMI and sporadic colorectal cancer.

They found that current alcohol drinking and greater BMI (≥ 24.0 kg/m2) are the independent risk factors for colon and rectal cancer, while former alcohol drinking and positive family history of cancer are the independent risk factors for colon cancer in southern Chinese. Their findings may contribute to the prevention and control of sporadic colorectal cancer. However, because of the uncontrolled bias in selection participants and retrospective design, their findings need to be further evaluated in well-designed larger epidemiological studies with different ethnic populations.

Source: World Journal of Gastroenterology