Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Aug 15, 2024; 16(8): 3496-3506
Published online Aug 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i8.3496
Serum ferritin and the risk of early-onset colorectal cancer
Adam L Urback, Kylee Martens, Hannah Stowe McMurry, Emerson Y Chen, Caitlin Citti, Anil Sharma, Adel Kardosh, Joseph J Shatzel
Adam L Urback, Division of Internal Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, United States
Kylee Martens, Hannah Stowe McMurry, Emerson Y Chen, Adel Kardosh, Joseph J Shatzel, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, United States
Caitlin Citti, Anil Sharma, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, United States
Author contributions: Urback AL conducted chart review, statistical analysis, helped develop study design, and wrote the original draft; Martens K and McMurry HS helped write subsequent drafts and provided reviewing and editing; Chen EY, Citti C, Sharma A, and Kardosh A provided reviewing, editing, and clinical advice; Shatzel JJ supervised the study, helped design the study, and provided reviewing and editing.
Supported by the Oregon Health & Sciences (OHSU) Institutional Review Board, No. STUDY00026428.
Institutional review board statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the OHSU Institutional Review Board prior to initiation (Approval No. STUDY00026428).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data and was retrospective in nature.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Shatzel JJ is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute/National Institutes of Health (No. R01HL151367); Shatzel JJ reports receiving consulting fees from Aronora Inc.; the remaining authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Adam L Urback, BSc, MD, MSc, Doctor, Division of Internal Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97239, United States. urback@ohsu.edu
Received: March 20, 2024
Revised: May 14, 2024
Accepted: June 11, 2024
Published online: August 15, 2024
Processing time: 140 Days and 21.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This is a retrospective study that compares serum ferritin between patients with early-onset colorectal cancer (EO-CRC) and healthy controls (HCs), and examines the association of serum ferritin in EO-CRC with patient- and disease-specific characteristics. We found a higher proportion of individuals with EO-CRC with serum ferritin < 20 ng/mL compared to HCs. Lower serum ferritin in patients with EO-CRC was associated with an earlier stage of disease and a younger age among females. These findings suggest that serum ferritin may be a useful marker in patients with localized disease, emphasizing the importance of early and appropriate gastrointestinal screening in patients found to have iron deficiency.