[Colorectal cancer in spouses of colorectal cancer patients].

Married couples share home environments and life style for years. In the case of colorectal cancer, an association with insulin resistance was reported. We determined the presence of the insulin-resistance syndrome (IRS, 1 or more of the following: body mass index of > 25 kg/m2, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia) in 84 colorectal cancer patients, of whom 61 patients (73%) had IRS. The incidence of the distal colorectal cancer, which has been declining in the United States, was significantly higher in the IRS group than in the non-IRS group (75.4 vs 52.2%, p = 0.0400). Some mechanisms may promote the progression of mucosal lesions to invasive cancers in the distal colorectum. There were no significant differences with respect to the age (64.6 +/- 9.4 vs 64.3 +/- 11.3 yr, p = 0.8298), height (159 +/- 9 vs 157 +/- 8 cm, p = 0.1375), and body mass index (22.2 +/- 3.6 vs 22.4 +/- 2.7 kg/m2, p = 0.6364) between the patients and their spouses. In 84 couples in whom colorectal cancer develops at least in one may then not illustrate the nursery rhyme: "Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean...". The spouses had been married for an average of 38 years, and in 30 spouses who had been followed in a colorectal cancer screening, 5 developed colorectal cancer. To diminish the incidence of colorectal cancer in Japan, we might advise screening colonoscopy to the spouses of colorectal cancer patients, or déjà vu all over again?