Evaluation of Visceral Adiposity Index and Vitamin D Status in Colon Cancer: Is Visceral Obesity the Missing Link?

Abstract

Background: We aimed to evaluate the effect of visceral obesity and vitamin D status on colon cancer and to investigate the possible link between visceral obesity and vitamin D in those patients.

Methods: This case-control study included 60 colon cancer patients and 40 subjects as control. Clinical, anthropometric, and pathological data were collected. Calculation of visceral adiposity index (VAI) and detection of vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels were performed and compared between groups.

Results: There were significant differences in VAI and level of 25(OH)D between both groups. Moreover, we found a significantly higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in the patient group (53.3%) versus the control group (32.5%). There was a significant different mean of VAI in vitamin D deficient patients versus non-deficient patients (P = 0.024). We found a significantly different means of VAI and vitamin D in the patients group with different TNM stages, as higher stages are associated with a lower level of vitamin D and higher VAI.

Conclusions: VAI and 25(OH)D were different in colon cancer patients compared with control. Likewise, they had different means with different TNM stages. Vitamin D may augment the inflammatory status in visceral obesity which is involved in tumorigenesis of colon cancer.

J Endocrinol Metab. 2021;11(5):115-122
doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jem762