Background: The weight-adjusted waist circumference index (WWI) is a novel obesity indicator that offers improved accuracy in assessing both muscle and fat mass compared to traditional measures. This study aimed to investigate the association between WWI and bone mineral density (BMD) in adults. Methods: Weighted multivariate logistic regression, subgroup analysis, interaction tests and restricted cubic spline (RCS) curves were used to explore the relationship between WWI and BMD based on data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Results: This study had 40,568 individuals in total. At all four measurement sites, we detected a negative linear correlation between WWI and BMD. Even when quartile factors for WWI were created, this unfavorable connection maintained. In comparison to those in the lowest quartile, those in the highest percentile of WWI showed declines in lumbar BMD of 0.08 g/cm² and femoral neck BMD of 0.03 g/cm², respectively. This adverse correlation, nevertheless, differed among several categories. Conclusions: Our findings suggest an adverse correlation between WWI and BMD among US adults. Employing WWI as a tool for osteoporosis prevention in the general population may enhance interventions.

Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is more abundant in feces than in serum; however, evidence for the role of fecal CEA (FCEA) in the detection of colorectal cancer (CRC) is limited. We conducted a systematic review of studies that evaluated FCEA for the noninvasive detection and diagnosis of CRC. PubMed and Web of Science were searched for relevant studies published until 18 January 2023. Information on publication year, study design, country, study population characteristics, FCEA and serum CEA (SCEA) concentrations, and diagnostic performance was summarized. Two authors independently extracted data and assessed the risk of bias and applicability of each included study. Seven studies published between 1979 and 2021, all conducted in clinical settings and together involving 399 CRC patients and 889 controls, were identified. Significant differences in FCEA concentrations were observed between CRC and control groups in all studies. Methods for detecting FCEA varied, with the electronic chemiluminescence immunoassay (ECLIA) being used in the most recent studies. Reported sensitivities, specificities, and area under the curves of FCEA ranged from 50.0% to 85.7%, 73.0% to 100.0%, and 0.704 to 0.831, respectively. In direct comparisons, the diagnostic performance of FCEA was better than that of SCEA. The potential role of FCEA as a novel, noninvasive, easily measurable biomarker for the diagnosis of CRC requires further evaluation in screening settings.

This study aimed to conduct a head‐to‐head comparison of the diagnostic value of serum carcinoembryonic antigen (sCEA) and fecal CEA (fCEA) for colorectal cancer (CRC) detection. Fecal and serum samples from 80 CRC cases at various tumor stages and 100 controls free of colorectal neoplasms at screening colonoscopy were randomly selected from two ongoing large prospective CRC detection studies (IDA and BLITZ) for CEA measurements. Fecal samples were processed using two methods: with and without mechanical homogenization. Diagnostic performance (area under the curve value [AUC], sensitivity) of fCEA and sCEA was compared individually and in combination with fecal immunochemical test (FIT). The fCEA concentrations obtained using both sample processing methods were highly correlated in both CRC cases and controls, but neither correlated with sCEA. The sCEA concentrations demonstrated significantly greater differences between the CRC and control group compared to fCEA concentrations. The diagnostic performance of fCEA obtained with both fecal sample processing methods was significantly lower than that of sCEA (AUC: 0.62 and 0.57 vs. 0.83, both p < .001; sensitivity at 85% specificity: 36.2% and 26.2% vs. 52.5%, p = .067 and .002). Algorithms combining sCEA with fCEA did not significantly improve the diagnostic performance compared to sCEA alone. Combining FIT with sCEA improved diagnostic performance over FIT alone. However, combining FIT with fCEA showed no improvement. In conclusion, fCEA is inferior to sCEA as a non‐invasive biomarker for CRC detection. Combination of FIT with sCEA demonstrates greater potential for CRC screening than combination of FIT with fCEA.

Competitive endogenous RNAs (ceRNAs) and tumor-infiltrating immune cells play essential roles in colorectal cancer (CRC) tumorigenesis. However, their prognostic role in elderly patients with CRC is unclear. Gene expression profiles and clinical information for elderly patients with CRC were downloaded from The Cancer Genome Atlas. Univariate, LASSO, and multivariate Cox regression analyses were utilized for screening key ceRNAs and prevent overfitting. A total of 265 elderly patients with CRC were included. We constructed a novel ceRNA network consisting of 17 lncRNAs, 35 miRNAs, and 5 mRNAs. We established three prognosis predictive nomograms based on four key ceRNAs (ceRNA nomogram), five key immune cells (immune cell nomogram), and their combination (ceRNA-immune cell nomogram). Among them, the ceRNA-immune cell nomogram had the best accuracy. Furthermore, the areas under the curve of the ceRNA-immune cell nomogram were also significantly greater than the TNM stage at 1 (0.818 vs. 0.693), 3 (0.865 vs. 0.674), and 5 (0.832 vs. 0.627) years. Co-expression analysis revealed that CBX6 was positively correlated with activated dendritic cells (R = 0.45, p < 0.01), whereas negatively correlated with activated mast cells (R =− 0.43, p < 0.01). In conclusion, our study constructed three nomograms to predict prognosis in elderly patients with CRC, among which the ceRNA-immune cell nomogram had the best prediction accuracy. We inferred that the mechanism underlying the regulation of activated dendritic cells and mast cells by CBX6 might play a crucial role in tumor development and prognosis of elderly patients with CRC.