Association between misty mesentery with baseline or new diagnosis of cancer: a matched cohort study

We compared the prevalence of a baseline diagnosis of cancer in patients with and without misty mesentery (MM) and determined its association with the development of a new cancer. This was a retrospective, HIPAA-compliant, IRB-approved case-control study of 148 cases and 4:1 age- and gender-matched controls. Statistical tests included chi-square, t-test, hazard models, and C-statistic. Patients with MM were less likely to have cancer at baseline (RR = 0.74, p = 0.003), but more likely to develop a new malignancy on follow-up (RR = 2.13, p = 0.003; survival analysis HR 1.74, p = 0.05). MM may confer an increased probability of later developing cancer, particularly genitourinary tumors.