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Serum Copper and Zinc Levels and Colorectal Cancer in Adults: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination 2011–2016

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Abstract

Several studies have indicated an association between serum copper and zinc levels and colorectal cancer, but results were controversial. This study assessed the association of serum copper, zinc, and copper/zinc ratio with colorectal cancer in US adults aged 20 years and older through the use of National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2011–2016 data. Serum concentrations of copper and zinc were measured using inductively coupled plasma dynamic reaction cell mass spectrometry (ICP-DRC-MS). Odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals (ORs with CIs) were calculated for serum copper, zinc, and copper/zinc ratio by multivariate logistic regression. A total of 4663 participants (2320 males and 2343 females) with 24 colorectal cancer patients were included in the analyses. We did not observe a statistically significant association between serum copper level and colorectal cancer (top vs bottom quartile multivariate OR 1.71; 95% CI, 0.37–7.88; P for trend = 0.429). In addition, serum zinc level was also not significantly associated with colorectal cancer (top vs bottom quartile multivariate OR 0.72; 95% CI, 0.12–4.27; P for trend = 0.346). While in the age- and gender-adjusted model, there seemed to be a trend that participants with higher copper/zinc ratio level had higher odds of colorectal cancer than participants with lower copper/zinc ratio level; no statistically significant association was observed in multivariate-adjusted models. Our findings did not support a significant association between serum copper and zinc level and colorectal cancer risk in the general US population. Furthermore, large longitudinal studies should be needed to confirm these findings.

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Data Availability

The data of this study will be made available on reasonable request.

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The code of this study will be made available on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for sharing the data.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81973652).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Trauma & Emergency, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Chaofeng Zhang, Renqiang Cheng, Jun Ding, Xingjia Li & Hongwen Niu

  2. Department of Anesthesiology, Shuguang Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 185, Pu An Road, Shanghai, 201203, China

    Xing Li

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  1. Chaofeng Zhang
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  2. Renqiang Cheng
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  3. Jun Ding
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  4. Xingjia Li
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  5. Hongwen Niu
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Contributions

Methodology, data curation, and writing-original draft: Chaofeng Zhang and Renqiang Cheng; writing-review and editing: Jun Ding and Xingjia Li; conceptualization and writing-review: Hongwen Niu; conceptualization, resources, and supervision: Xing Li.

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Correspondence to Xing Li.

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NHANES was approved by the National Center for Health Statistics Research Ethics Review Board.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Chaofeng Zhang and Renqiang Cheng have contributed equally to this work.

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Zhang, C., Cheng, R., Ding, J. et al. Serum Copper and Zinc Levels and Colorectal Cancer in Adults: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination 2011–2016. Biol Trace Elem Res 200, 2033–2039 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-02826-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-021-02826-8

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