Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Colorectal cancer is the world’s third most common cancer. The prognosis is mainly determined by the stage of the tumor, but several other factors related to the patient, such as co-morbidities, may also have an impact on the disease course. The aim of our study was to assess the prognostic value of diabetes and obesity in colorectal cancer.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study including patients diagnosed with primary colon or rectal cancer, over an 8-year period [January 2014-June 2022]. Patients were compared according to the presence or absence of diabetes and obesity, that was defined by a body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 kg/m². Data were entered and analyzed via SPSS 26 software. Prognostic analysis was performed using the Kaplan Meier method.

Results: A total of 83 patients were included, with a mean age at disease diagnosis of 60±12 years and a sex ratio M/F=1.96. Liberkhunian adenocarcinoma was the dominant histological type (90%). Eleven patients had metastatic disease at diagnosis, with the majority classified as TNM stage 2 and 3 (25% and 47% respectively). Twenty-three patients had diabetes (28%). Thirty-one patients were obese (31%). The cancer was in the rectum in 30% of the cases and in the colon in 70%. For treatment, 24% of patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy (24%), 74 patients underwent surgery (89%), with urgent surgery in 20% of the cases, and 60% required adjuvant chemotherapy. In a univariate study, diabetes was significantly associated with an age of cancer’s discovery greater than 50 years (P=0.018). The presence of pulmonary metastases was higher in diabetic patients, without a significant difference (P=0.06). In terms of endoscopic characteristics, patients with a BMI greater than 25 kg/m² were more likely to have a stenosing and circumferential tumour, with a difference at the limit of signification (P=0.05 and P=0.06 respectively). Comparing Kaplan-Meier survival curves, there was no significant difference in survival in diabetic patients (log rank test= 0.86) and also in obese patients (log rank test=0.72).

Conclusion: Diabetes and obesity are known as risk factors for colorectal cancer and could influence tumor characteristics, but they do not appear to impact prognosis in our study.