This study evaluated the relationship between metabolic syndrome (MS) and the risk of hypopharyngeal cancer. This retrospective cohort study used data from the Korean National Health Insurance Research Database. A total of 4,567,890 participants who underwent a health checkup in 2008 were enrolled. The participants were followed until 2019, and the incidence of hypopharyngeal cancer was analyzed. We evaluated the risk of hypopharyngeal cancer according to the presence of MS, including obesity, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and diabetes, using a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model adjusted for age, sex, alcohol consumption, and smoking. During the follow-up period, 821 were newly diagnosed with hypopharyngeal cancer. MS was inversely associated with the risk of hypopharyngeal cancer (hazard ratio (HR), 0.83 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.708–0.971]). Large waist circumference and high triglyceride levels among MS elements were both inversely related to the risk of hypopharyngeal cancer (HR: 0.82 [95% CI, 0.711–0.945] and 0.83 [95% CI, 0.703–0.978], respectively). The risk of hypopharyngeal cancer decreased with increasing comorbidity of MS in women (N = 0 vs. N = 1–2 vs. N ≥ 3; HR = 1 vs. HR = 0.511 [95% CI, 0.274–0.952] vs. HR = 0.295 [95% CI, 0.132–0.66]), but not in men. This study may improve our etiological understanding of hypopharyngeal cancer.
本研究评估了代谢综合征（MS）与下咽癌风险之间的关系。这项回顾性队列研究使用了韩国国民健康保险研究数据库的数据。共纳入2008年接受健康检查的4,567,890名参与者。对参与者随访至2019年，并分析了下咽癌的发病率。我们根据是否存在MS（包括肥胖、血脂异常、高血压和糖尿病），采用经年龄、性别、饮酒和吸烟调整的多变量Cox比例风险模型，评估了下咽癌的风险。在随访期间，共有821例新发下咽癌病例。MS与下咽癌风险呈负相关（风险比（HR）为0.83 [95%置信区间（CI），0.708–0.971]）。在MS组成要素中，腰围过大和甘油三酯水平升高均与下咽癌风险呈负相关（HR分别为0.82 [95% CI，0.711–0.945]和0.83 [95% CI，0.703–0.978]）。女性下咽癌风险随MS合并症数量的增加而降低（N = 0 vs. N = 1–2 vs. N ≥ 3；HR = 1 vs. HR = 0.511 [95% CI，0.274–0.952] vs. HR = 0.295 [95% CI，0.132–0.66]），但男性中未观察到这一趋势。本研究可能增进我们对下咽癌病因学的理解。
肿瘤(癌症)患者之家