Association Between Triglyceride Glucose Index and Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Risk in Chinese Population

Background: Numerous studies showed that insulin resistance (IR) was associated with cancer risk. However, few studies investigated the relationship between IR and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study is to explore the association of triglyceride glucose (TyG) index, a simple surrogate marker of IR, with NSCLC risk.

Methods: 791 histologically confirmed NSCLC cases and 787 controls were enrolled in the present study. Fasting blood glucose and triglyceride were measured. The TyG index was calculated as ln [fasting triglycerides (mg/dl) ×fasting glucose (mg/dl)/2]. Logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the relationship between NSCLC risk and the TyG index.

Results: The TyG index was significantly higher in patients with NSCLC than that in controls (8.42 ± 0.55 8.00 ± 0.45, < 0.01). Logistic regression analysis showed that the TyG index ( = 3.651, 95% 2.461-5.417, < 0.001) was independently associated with NSCLC risk after adjusting for conventional risk factors. In addition, a continuous rise in the incidence of NSCLC was observed along the tertiles of the TyG index (29.4 53.8 67.2%, < 0.001). However, there were no differences of the TyG index in different pathological or TNM stages. In receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, the optimal cut-off level for the TyG index to predict incident NSCLC was 8.18, and the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) was 0.713(95% 0.688-0.738).

Conclusions: The TyG index is significantly correlated with NSCLC risk, and it may be suitable as a predictor for NSCLC.