Unhealthy diets: a common soil for the association of metabolic syndrome and cancer

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Unhealthy diets: a common soil for the association of metabolic syndrome and cancer Katherine Esposito • Fortunato Ciardiello Dario Giugliano



Received: 5 December 2013 / Accepted: 16 December 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Abstract The association between metabolic syndrome and cancer continues to be acknowledged. Metabolic syndrome is a common long-term complication in cancer survivors; on the other hand, findings from several recent metaanalyses suggest that the presence of metabolic syndrome is associated with increased risk of future cancer at specific sites. Approximately one-third of cancer deaths occurring in the USA each year may be caused by unhealthy lifestyle habits, including poor nutrition. Worldwide, diets low in fruits rank third for deaths attributable to individual risk factors. Metabolic syndrome may be a surrogate marker for dietary risk factors for cancer, a sentinel for the deleterious effect of unhealthy diet in susceptible individuals, who may first manifest metabolic consequences (visceral obesity, dysglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia), and then an increased risk of cancer. From the standpoint of preventive oncology, people with the metabolic syndrome should be encouraged, more than sex- and age-matched counterparts, to undergo appropriate cancer screenings. Keywords Unhealthy diets  Metabolic syndrome  Cancer  Common soil

K. Esposito  F. Ciardiello Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Surgery, Second University of Naples, Naples, Italy

Introduction Metabolic syndrome has become a major public health problem worldwide. Slightly more than one-third (35 %) of adults in the USA could be characterized as having the metabolic syndrome [1]. This translates to nearly 84 million US adults affected by the syndrome (calculated from US Bureau of the Census data for 2012, with an adult resident population of 239 million). A higher percentage (40.1 %, nearly 95 million US adults) of prevalence occurred with revised International Diabetes Federation 2005 criteria, which use a lower cutoff point for waist (C94 cm in men and C80 cm in women), instead of C102 cm in men and C88 cm in women. Although the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Europe shows ample variations, depending on the age group, geographic location, characteristics of the population, and different definitions of the syndrome, approximately one-fourth of the adult European population is affected by the metabolic syndrome [2]. Regardless of the true actual figures, there is undoubtedly a dramatic increase in this condition. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 [3], eight million people died from cancer in 2010, over a third more deaths than 20 years ago. As world population is progressively aging, and both metabolic syndrome and cancer are dramatically increasing in Westernized world, these two conditions are more likely to coexist in the same patient.

Metabolic syndrome and cancer: which direction? D. Giugliano (&) Department of Medical, Surgical, Neurological