Glucose Intolerance and Colorectal Cancer Risk in a Nested Case-Control Study among Japanese People

BACKGROUND: Glucose intolerance may increase the risk of developing colorectal cancer. METHODS: In a sero-epidemiological nested case-control study, conducted as part of the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study (JACC Study) for Evaluation of Cancer Risk, we measured serum glycoalbumin in 123 patients with colorectal cancer and 279 controls. Conditional logistic regression was used to evaluate the risk of colorectal cancer. RESULTS: There were trends towards an association between high levels of glycoalbumin and an increased risk of colorectal cancer in men (odds ratio [OR] = 2.39; 95% confidence interval [CI]; 0.89-6.36) and between high levels of glycoalbumin and a decreased risk of colorectal cancer in women (OR = 0.41; 95% CI, 0.14-1.04). CONCLUSIONS: A high level of glycoalbumin may increase the risk of colorectal cancer in men. The finding that high levels of glycoalbumin in women decreased their risk of colorectal cancer was inconsistent with previous reports, and may have been the result of limitations in the procedure in selecting samples and statistical power.