WASHINGTON (AFP) -- Patients with coronary artery disease face nearly double the risk of healthy people for colorectal cancer, according to a Hong Kong study.

University of Hong Kong researcher Annie On Chan found that the prevalence of colorectal cancers and tumors was sharply higher among patients newly diagnosed with atherosclerosis, and even greater if they were smokers or had metabolic syndrome.
Chan's research team studied 621 people being screened for coronary artery disease (CAD) in Hong Kong, their average age over 60, between November 2004 and June 2006, to determine any linkage between coronary disease and colorectal cancer, the second-most prevalent cancer around the globe.
For those newly diagnosed with coronary disease, the rate of cancer was 4.4 percent; for those without heart disease 0.5 percent, and 1.5 percent in the general population.
""Both colorectal neoplasm and CAD probably develop through the mechanism of chronic inflammation,"" the authors said in a summary of their research.
""Inflammation is now recognized as being pivotal in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and, hence, CAD. Colorectal cancer is also thought to progress through the pathway of inflammation.""