Takeaway
- This meta-analysis suggests that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was independently associated with a moderately increased prevalence and incidence of colorectal cancer in asymptomatic adults (predominantly Asian descent) who underwent screening colonoscopy.
Why this matters
- Finding suggests that a diagnosis of NAFLD could identify a subset of individuals who are at higher risk of having colorectal cancer, and who could need careful surveillance.
Study design
- Systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 observational studies including 91,124 asymptomatic adults undergoing screening colonoscopy from January 2000 to November 2017.
- Funding: None disclosed.
Key results
- Overall, NAFLD was reported in 29,319 patients and accounted for a total of 14,911 colorectal adenomas and 1684 cancers.
- NAFLD was moderately associated with an increased risk for prevalent colorectal tumours (overall random-effects OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.24-1.57) independent of age, sex, BMI, smoking, hypertension, diabetes or metabolic syndrome for both adenomas and cancer.
- Independent moderate association was seen between NAFLD and the increased risk for incident colorectal tumours (overall random-effects HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.20-1.81) and was consistent for both adenomas (HR, 1.42; 95% CI, 1.18-1.72) and cancer (HR, 3.08; 95% CI, 1.02-9.03).
Limitations
- Risk for bias.
- Residual confounding could not be ruled out.
References
References