Prognostic value of combining preoperative serum tumor markers and peripheral blood routine indexes in patients with colorectal cancer

Abstract

To investigate the prognostic value of preoperative serum tumor markers combined with peripheral blood routine indexes in colorectal cancer patients. From January 2010 to March 2013, clinicopathological data of colorectal cancer patients receiving surgery treatment at the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University were collected. (1) histologically confirmed adenocarcinoma; (2) primary cancer resected; (3) intact clinical data; (4) no signs of clinical infection. Patients with intestinal perforation or obstruction, hematological diseases or other malignant tumors were excluded. Informations were recorded containing sex, age, tumor location, degree of differentiation, tumor size, vascular tumor thrombus, nerve invasion, depth of infiltration, lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, TNM stage, peripheral serum CEA, CA199, number of neutrophil, monocyte, platelet and lymphocyte. Positive CEA was defined as ≥5 μg/L, CA199 as ≥35 U/L; while NLR (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio), MLR (monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio), PLR (platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio) greater than their cut-off values were defined as positive. ROC curve was used to determine the cut-off values (with greatest area under curve) of NLR, MLR and PLR. The prognostic values of these indexes were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier regression and log-rank test. COX regression was used to perform risk factor analysis. A total of 312 colorectal cancer patients were enrolled, including 192 males and 120 females with median age of 61 (15-85) years. Till March 11, 2018, during median follow-up period of 65 months(2-96), the follow-up rate was 90.4% with loss of 30 cases and the mortality was 37.2% with 116 death. Univariate analysis found that colorectal cancer patients with positive CEA, CA199, NLR (>2.32), MLR (>0.24) and PLR (>164.1) had poor prognosis (all P<0.01). When combining CEA, CA199 with NLR, MLR, PLR, the survival analysis showed that patients with both negative indexes had the best prognosis, one positive the worse and both positive were the worst (all P<0.01). COX regression revealed that CEA(HR= 1.702,95%CI:1.148-2.522, P<0.01), combination of CA199 and MLR (HR=2.292, 95%CI:1.426-3.683, P<0.01) were independent risk factors for colorectal cancer. Combination of preoperative serum tumor markers and peripheral blood routine indexes can provide prognostic information for the patients with colorectal cancer.