title: Lifestyle-related biomarkers and endometrial cancer survival: elevated gamma-glutamyltransferase as an important risk factor.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lifestyle seems to play an important role in endometrial cancer mortality, but it remains unclear which biomarkers are involved. The aim of this study was to assess the extent of the association between lifestyle-related biomarkers and the survival of endometrial cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sub-cohort of 242 endometrial cancer patients, from a population-based study of the more than 90,000 female participants of the Vorarlberg Health Monitoring and Promotion Programme, was followed for a median duration of twelve years. Besides age, tumour staging, and histology, also pre-diagnostic levels of body mass index, blood pressure, triglycerides, total cholesterol, glucose, gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and serum uric acid were analysed in Cox proportional hazards regression models to estimate multivariate mortality risks.
  
  
  RESULTS
  During follow-up 89 deaths occurred of which 49 were cancer-related. Survival was associated with age, tumour stage, and histology. Of the biomarkers, log10-transformed GGT showed a large effect on cancer-related mortality (HR = 3.35, 95% CI 1.12-10.03), whereas the other parameters did not appear with significant effects after adjustment for the other factors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elevated level of GGT, a lifestyle-related marker, was associated with poor survival among endometrial cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics, Innsbruck Medical University, Austria. Michael.Edlinger@i-med.ac.at
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Edlinger
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Concin
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Concin
authors.forename: Gabriele
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nagel
authors.forename: Hanno
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ulmer
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Göbel
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000201:enzymology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018196:Carcinoma, Adenosquamous / Q000201:enzymology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000201:enzymology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase; C554782:gamma-glutamyltransferase, human