Inverse Correlation between Cancer Size and Abdominal Obesity in Colorectal Cancer Cases

Background: Correlation between colorectal cancer (CRC) and abdominal obesity has been established, but there is a paucity of data on non-obese CRC patients. The aim of this study was to establish the characteristics of CRCs that occur in such patients. Materials and Methods: Consecutive CRC patients without cachexia were included. Unintended body weight loss, T4- or M1-staged CRCs, extensive lymph node involvement, or synchronous malignancy were classified as cachectic conditions. Abdominal fat volumes were measured using a multidetector CT unit with a software (Rapidia, INFINITT, Seoul, Korea). Results: Of the newly-diagnosed CRC patients, 258 non-cachectic and 88 cachectic patients were analyzed. The cancer size (p<0.001) and T stage (p<0.001) were inversely correlated with body mass index (BMI), visceral fat and subcutaneous fat volumes. Cancer size was the only independent factor related to BMI (p=0.016), visceral fat volume (p=0.002), and subcutaneous fat volume (p=0.027). In non-cachectic patients, a significant inverse correlation was found only between the cancer size and visceral fat volume (p=0.017). Conclusions: Non-obese CRC patients tend to have larger CRC lesions than their obese counterparts even under non-cachectic conditions. Such an inverse correlation between cancer size and visceral fat volume suggests that considerable CRCs are not correlated with abdominal obesity.