OBJECTIVETo analyze the impact of diabetes mellitus on the clinicopathological factors and prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer.

METHODSA total of 599 patients with colorectal cancer treated between January 2000 and June 2007 were collected retrospectively. The patients were divided into diabetes mellitus (DM) group and non-diabetes mellitus (NDM) group. The pathologic factors data was compared between the two groups, and the Logistic multivariable analysis was performed. The Cox regression model analysis of prognosis data was applied in 402 patients who underwent radical surgery without preoperative neoadjuvant therapy.

RESULTSA total of 58 cases (9.7%) developed diabetes mellitus. Significant differences was found in the body-weight, age, hypertension between the two groups (P < 0.05), while no significant differences in the pathologic factors, such as tumor differentiation, invasion depth, lymph node involvement, TNM stage and lymphovascular invasion was found between the two groups (P > 0.05). There was no significant correlation between diabetes mellitus and the pathologic factors on the Logistic analysis (P > 0.05). Among the patients underwent radical surgery directly, neither disease progression curve (P = 0.521) nor overall survival curve (P = 0.909) presented significant differences between the two groups. It's not shown that diabetes mellitus was significantly associated with the prognosis of patients with colorectal cancer by using Cox regression analysis (P = 0.991).

CONCLUSIONSDiabetes mellitus does not significantly influence the clinicopathological factors and the prognosis of colorectal cancer in patients receiving radical surgery, and it requires more investigation.