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Serum zinc deficiency in patients after gastrectomy for gastric cancer

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Abstract

Purpose

Zinc is an essential dietary component for humans and the second most prevalent trace element; however, serum zinc levels after gastrectomy have not been fully elucidated. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between clinicopathologic features and serum zinc levels in patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer.

Methods

The study enrolled 617 patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer at the Kochi Medical School. Clinical data were obtained to investigate associations between clinicopathological features, including nutritional indicators and serum zinc levels. Serum zinc deficiency was defined as serum zinc level < 80 μg/dL.

Results

The median zinc level of the 617 patients was 73 μg/dL (range, 31–144 μg/dL), and serum zinc deficiency was present in 68.6% of patients. Median age was significantly higher in the zinc low level group than in the normal group (69 vs. 66 years, P < 0.001). Albumin was significantly lower in the zinc low level group than in the normal group (3.9 vs. 4.2 g/dL, P < 0.001). C-reactive protein level was significantly higher in the zinc low level group than in the normal group (0.12 vs. 0.10 mg/dL, P = 0.014). The median serum zinc level was significantly lower in the patients who received chemotherapy after gastrectomy than in those who were not received chemotherapy (72 vs. 76 μg/dL, P < 0.001). Serum zinc levels showed a significant positive correlation with serum albumin (r = 0.505, P = 0.044). Multivariate analysis showed that serum albumin level was significantly associated with serum zinc level (β = 0.489, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Serum zinc deficiency was found in 68.6% of postoperative patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer, which was highly correlated with serum albumin.

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Funding

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Kochi Medical School, Kohasu, Oko-cho, Nankoku, Kochi, 783-8505, Japan

    Tsutomu Namikawa, Shigeto Shimizu, Keiichiro Yokota, Nobuhisa Tanioka, Jun Iwabu, Masaya Munekage, Sunao Uemura, Hiromichi Maeda, Hiroyuki Kitagawa & Kazuhiro Hanazaki

  2. Department of Human Health and Medical Sciences, Kochi Medical School, Nankoku, Kochi, Japan

    Michiya Kobayashi

Authors
  1. Tsutomu Namikawa
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  2. Shigeto Shimizu
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  3. Keiichiro Yokota
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  4. Nobuhisa Tanioka
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  5. Jun Iwabu
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  6. Masaya Munekage
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  7. Sunao Uemura
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  8. Hiromichi Maeda
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  9. Hiroyuki Kitagawa
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  10. Michiya Kobayashi
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  11. Kazuhiro Hanazaki
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Contributions

Study conception and design: TN. Acquisition of data: TN, SS, KY, NT, JI, MM, SU, HK, MK. Analysis and interpretation of data: TN and HM. Drafting of manuscript: TN. Critical revision of manuscript: TN and KH.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tsutomu Namikawa.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Namikawa, T., Shimizu, S., Yokota, K. et al. Serum zinc deficiency in patients after gastrectomy for gastric cancer. Int J Clin Oncol 26, 1864–1870 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-021-01978-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10147-021-01978-w

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