Role of body mass index in colon cancer patients in Taiwan

Table 1 Patient and tumor characteristics stratified according to body mass index category

	Percentage of patients within each BMI category
	Under-weight(n = 164)	Normal weight(n = 1109)	Over-weight(n = 550)	Obese(n = 315)	P value
Age at diagnosis (yr)					< 0.001
≤ 40	12.8	8.7	5.8	4.8
41-75	57.3	75.5	81.6	83.2
> 75	29.9	15.9	12.5	12.1
Gender (%)
Female	65.9	47.2	44.7	48.3	< 0.001
Tumor location
Right	47.0	41.6	35.5	29.5	< 0.001
Tumor grade
High-to-moderate differentiation	82.9	83.7	85.6	87.9	0.239
Tumor stage					< 0.001
I	9.1	9.2	15.3	19.4
II	48.2	50.9	44.7	45.1
III	42.7	39.9	40.0	35.6
Emergent operation	3.7	3.4	2.5	2.2	0.584
Body weight loss	57.9	45.5	33.3	20.8	< 0.001
CEA > 5 ng/mL	44.2	34.6	36.3	36.0	0.150
Albumin < 35 g/L	42.3	21.0	13.5	11.6	< 0.001
Hemoglobin < 10 g/dL	40.9	32.9	23.2	21.3	< 0.001
Comorbidities
None	57.3	51.7	50.1	41.6	< 0.001
Hypertension	11.0	19.7	26.2	34.9	< 0.001
Heart disease	8.5	6.8	7.6	12.7	0.008
Previous stroke	3.0	3.4	4.5	4.8	0.527
Asthma	3.7	3.3	3.6	2.9	0.936
Diabetes mellitus	4.9	10.6	12.4	20.6	< 0.001
Peptic ulcer disease	14.0	10.8	9.1	8.9	0.229
Chronic hepatitis	1.2	4.3	3.3	4.1	0.225
Liver cirrhosis	1.8	1.4	1.1	0.6	0.650
Renal insufficiency	5.2	8.9	6.8	9.4	0.202
Others	16.6	13.8	12.0	15.1	0.555

Except where stated otherwise, data are the percentage of the particular body mass index (BMI) category population. CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen.