The evaluation of the association between the metabolic syndrome and tumor grade and stage of bladder cancer in a Chinese population

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article was to summarize the relationship between some components of metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the histopathologic findings in bladder cancer in a Chinese population. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed data of 323 patients from the Department of Urology, Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University between January 2012 and January 2014. All the patients were diagnosed with bladder cancer for the first time. Age, height, weight, histologic stage, grade, the presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and body mass index were evaluated. The 2009 American Joint Committee on Cancer TNM staging system was used, with Ta and T1 tumors accepted as lower stage and T2, T3, and T4 tumors as higher stage bladder cancers. Also, pathologists assigned tumor grade according to the 1973 World Health Organization grading system. Noninvasive papillary urothelial neoplasms of low malignant potential were regarded as low grade. Analyses were completed using chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Of the 323 patients, 164 had hypertension, 151 had diabetes mellitus, and 213 had a body mass index ≥25 kg/m(2). MetS was significantly associated with histologic grade (P<0.001) and stage (P=0.006) of bladder cancer. Adjusted for age in binary logistic regression analysis, the presence of MetS predicts the risk of higher T stage (odds ratio =4.029, P<0.001) and grade (odds ratio =3.870, P<0.001) of bladder cancer. CONCLUSION: The patients with MetS in the People’s Republic of China were found to have statistically significant higher T stage and grade of bladder cancer.