PLoS ONE (Jul 2010)

Risk factors for colorectal cancer in patients with multiple serrated polyps: a cross-sectional case series from genetics clinics.

  • Daniel D Buchanan,
  • Kevin Sweet,
  • Musa Drini,
  • Mark A Jenkins,
  • Aung Ko Win,
  • Dallas R English,
  • Michael D Walsh,
  • Mark Clendenning,
  • Diane M McKeone,
  • Rhiannon J Walters,
  • Aedan Roberts,
  • Sally-Ann Pearson,
  • Erika Pavluk,
  • John L Hopper,
  • Michael R Gattas,
  • Jack Goldblatt,
  • Jill George,
  • Graeme K Suthers,
  • Kerry D Phillips,
  • Sonja Woodall,
  • Julie Arnold,
  • Kathy Tucker,
  • Amanda Muir,
  • Michael Field,
  • Sian Greening,
  • Steven Gallinger,
  • Renee Perrier,
  • John A Baron,
  • John D Potter,
  • Robert Haile,
  • Wendy Frankel,
  • Albert de la Chapelle,
  • Finlay Macrae,
  • Christophe Rosty,
  • Neal I Walker,
  • Susan Parry,
  • Joanne P Young

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011636
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 7
p. e11636

Abstract

Read online

Patients with multiple serrated polyps are at an increased risk for developing colorectal cancer (CRC). Recent reports have linked cigarette smoking with the subset of CRC that develops from serrated polyps. The aim of this work therefore was to investigate the association between smoking and the risk of CRC in high-risk genetics clinic patients presenting with multiple serrated polyps.We identified 151 Caucasian individuals with multiple serrated polyps including at least 5 outside the rectum, and classified patients into non-smokers, current or former smokers at the time of initial diagnosis of polyposis. Cases were individuals with multiple serrated polyps who presented with CRC. Controls were individuals with multiple serrated polyps and no CRC. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to estimate associations between smoking and CRC with adjustment for age at first presentation, sex and co-existing traditional adenomas, a feature that has been consistently linked with CRC risk in patients with multiple serrated polyps. CRC was present in 56 (37%) individuals at presentation. Patients with at least one adenoma were 4 times more likely to present with CRC compared with patients without adenomas (OR = 4.09; 95%CI 1.27 to 13.14; P = 0.02). For females, the odds of CRC decreased by 90% in current smokers as compared to never smokers (OR = 0.10; 95%CI 0.02 to 0.47; P = 0.004) after adjusting for age and adenomas. For males, there was no relationship between current smoking and CRC. There was no statistical evidence of an association between former smoking and CRC for both sexes.A decreased odds for CRC was identified in females with multiple serrated polyps who currently smoke, independent of age and the presence of a traditional adenoma. Investigations into the biological basis for these observations could lead to non-smoking-related therapies being developed to decrease the risk of CRC and colectomy in these patients.