SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1538073
Impact of Visceral Obesity on Postoperative Outcomes in Colorectal Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xinghua People's Hospital Affiliated to Yangzhou University, xinghua, China
- 2Shandong Second Medical University, Weifang, Shandong Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the impact of visceral obesity (VO) on postoperative outcomes in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Methods: Primary studies were obtained from sources like Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science during the search, which ran until October 2024. Patients with colorectal cancer who had VO and those who did not had different intraoperative conditions, postoperative outcomes, postoperative complications, and long-term prognoses, including overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Results: 5,756 individuals with VO and 5,373 patients without VO were among the 11,129 patients who had colorectal cancer resected. Patients with VO had higher conversion rates (p = 0.03), fewer lymph nodes removed (p = 0.05), and longer recovery times for bowel movements (p = 0.009). Furthermore, patients with VO had a considerably greater overall incidence of sequelae than those without (p = 0.0003), including anastomotic leaks (p = 0.01), intestinal obstruction (p = 0.0003), intraabdominal abscesses (p = 0.004), wound infections (p < 0.00001), and pulmonary problems (p = 0.0003). OS and DFS, however, did not differ between the two groups (p > 0.05). Conclusions: Colorectal cancer patients with VO who have surgery tend to have fewer lymph nodes taken, more problems after surgery, and a higher rate of switching to open surgery.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, Visceral obesity, visceral fat area, Surgery, complications
Received: 02 Dec 2024; Accepted: 11 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Liu, Feng, Jiang and Huang. 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: Lili Huang, Xinghua People's Hospital Affiliated to Yangzhou University, xinghua, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.