Patients With Coronary Artery Disease Have More Colorectal Tumors

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Heart disease patients may be more at risk for colon cancer.

A new study reveals newly diagnosed coronary artery patients in Hong Kong had nearly twice the prevalence of colorectal tumors and cancers, and the association was stronger in patients who had smoked or have metabolic syndrome.

Participants were recruited for screening colonoscopy after they had coronary angiography for suspected coronary artery disease (CAD) from November 2004 to June 2006. CAD was defined as at least 50-percent diameter narrowing in any one of the major coronary arteries. Otherwise participants were considered CAD-negative. There was also a control group recruited from the general population.

Researchers found colorectal neoplasms -- precancerous tumors or cancer -- and advanced lesions were more prevalent (34.0 percent and 18.4 percent, respectively) in the CAD-positive group than in the CAD-negative (18.8 percent and 8.7 percent) and the general population (20.8 percent and 5.8 percent) groups. The prevalence of cancer was 4.4 percent, 0.5 percent, and 1.4 percent in the CAD-positive, CAD-negative, and general population groups, respectively. Half the cancers in the CAD-positive group were early stage.

The authors write, “Both colorectal neoplasm and CAD probably develop through the mechanism of chronic inflammation. Inflammation is now recognized as being pivotal in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and, hence, CAD. Colorectal cancer is also thought to progress through the pathway of inflammation.”

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SOURCE: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 2007;298:1412-1419