Researchers at Korea University Guro Hospital (KUGH) have found the incidence of colorectal cancer is 1.4 times higher for men and 1.2 times higher for women who have metabolic syndrome.

The team, led by Professor Choi Yoon-jin of the department of gastroenterology at the hospital, analyzed 22,809,722 people, who underwent national health screening from 2009 to 2012. They compared the incidence of colorectal cancer among groups according to the presence or absence of metabolic syndrome.

Of the total, 6,296,903 people had metabolic syndrome, and 63,045, or 1 percent, of them later received colorectal cancer diagnosis. For the 16,512,819 people without metabolic syndrome, 85,422 patients had colorectal cancer, accounting for only 0.52 percent.

People with metabolic syndrome tend to have a clustering of at least three of the five medical conditions -- abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, and low HDL cholesterol.

In particular, the study found that the risk of developing colorectal cancer increases if only two of the five factors of metabolic syndrome are present.

The team also discovered that three of the metabolic syndrome factors -- abdominal obesity, hyperglycemia, and low HDL cholesterol – had a close relationship with the incidence of colorectal cancer. The study showed that the risk of colon cancer increased by 30 percent if a patient had two of the symptoms while growing 45 percent if the patient had all of the symptoms.

“It is significant that this study will serve as a definitive answer to several inconsistent studies of the association of metabolic syndrome with increased incidences of colorectal cancer,” Professor Choi said. “Also, the difference in incidence according to gender has been revealed.”

If a patient has more than two of the metabolic syndrome symptoms associated with colorectal cancer, they need to take necessary precautions such as receiving a health screening, Choi added.

European Journal of Epidemiology published the result of the research.