ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Nutr.
Sec. Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnut.2025.1551526
This article is part of the Research TopicPreventative Medicine: Nutritional and Lifestyle Interventions for Healthy Ageing and Chronic DiseasesView all 39 articles
Lifestyle can exert a significant impact on the development of metabolic comorbidities in early-stage colorectal cancer patients
Provisionally accepted
- 1The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
- 2Xiajin Country People's Hospital, Xiajin, Shandong, China
- 3Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Beijing, China
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Background: Metabolic dysregulation has been identified as contributing to colorectal cancer (CRC) development. However, there is a lack of data regarding the association between lifestyle factors and metabolic diseases in CRC patients. Methods: We conducted a multi-center cross-sectional study including 437 early-stage CRC patients and 437 control participants between April 2023 and March 2024. The dietary inflammatory index (DII) was calculated based on dietary data, which was collected using a food frequency questionnaire. A healthy lifestyle was defined as adherence to an anti-inflammatory diet (DII score < 0) combined with active physical activity. Results: Among early-stage CRC patients, overweight and obesity were associated with an anti-inflammatory diet (OR = 0.585, 95% CI = 0.346-0.988, p = 0.045; OR = 0.463, 95% CI = 0.221-0.966, p = 0.040). Metabolic syndrome (MS) was associated with overweight or obesity (OR = 2.203, 95% CI = 1.283–3.782, p = 0.004) and age (OR = 1.052, 95% CI = 1.030–1.073, p < 0.001). Type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) or prediabetes was associated with overweight or obesity (OR = 1.788, 95% CI = 1.079–2.960, p = 0.024) and age (OR = 1.053, 95% CI = 1.032–1.073, p < 0.001). Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) was associated with overweight or obesity (OR = 1.807, 95% CI = 1.122–2.910, p = 0.015), age (OR = 1.039, 95% CI = 1.020–1.058, p < 0.001), and an unhealthy lifestyle (OR = 4.314, 95% CI = 1.549–12.014, p = 0.005). Moreover, both an active lifestyle and a healthy lifestyle were significantly associated with a lower likelihood of being diagnosed with overweight or obesity, MS, DM2 or prediabetes, and MAFLD (p < 0.05). Stratified analysis revealed that late-onset CRC patients adhering to an active lifestyle and a healthy lifestyle showed risk reductions for these metabolic comorbidities (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Adherence to healthy lifestyles, particularly in individuals aged ≥ 50 years, may alleviate metabolic dysregulation in early-stage CRC patients.
Keywords: Early-stage colorectal cancer, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes mellitus, Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease, lifestyle
Received: 25 Dec 2024; Accepted: 11 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Xin, Liu, Cui, Wang and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Honglei Wu, The Second Hospital of Shandong University, Jinan, China
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