The potential for combined measures of the systemic inflammatory response (SIR) in colon cancer: An analysis of 2,300 patients.

Abstract

233 Background: The preoperative SIR clearly demonstrates independent prognostic significance following curative resection for colon cancer, independent of TNM stage. SIR can be measured either using acute phase proteins, predominantly the modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS) or using the differential white cell count, predominantly neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) or lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR). The present study investigates the potential to combine these scores to better predict overall/cancer specific survival (OS/CSS). Methods: Patients in the West of Scotland undergoing curative resection for Stage I-III colon cancer from 2011-2015 were identified with survival updated until December 2018. Through uni/multivariate analysis (UVA/MVA) we compared the effect on OS/CSS of the SIR measured using a combination of mGPS and either NLR or LMR with other clinicopathological features. Results: 2312 patients were identified having underwent curative surgery. Median follow up time was 60 months and there were 756 deaths during follow up. On UVA: mGPS (0/1/2), NLR ( < 3/3-5/ > 5) and LMR ( < 2.5/2.5+) were significant for OS and CSS (all p < 0.001). In the multivariate model when a combination of mGPS and NLR were entered, both remained significant for OS (mGPS: HR 1.20, p = 0.002 and NLR: HR 1.23, p = 0.001) and CSS (mGPS: HR 1.25, p = 0.003 and NLR: HR 1.21, p = 0.017) adjusted for age, sex, emergency presentation, site, ASA, TNM stage and margin involvement. With mGPS and LMR in the model similar results were seen for OS (mGPS: HR 1.24, p = 0.005 and LMR: HR 1.49, p = 0.003) and CSS (mGPS: HR 1.20 p = 0.001 and LMR: HR 1.45, p < 0.001). When mGPS and NLR were scored 0/1/2 (mGPS 0/1/2 and NLR < 3/3-5/ > 5) and combined to form a cumulative grade (0/1/2/3/4) this offered better stratification of %OS (86/84/72/61/55) than mGPS (83/75/60) or NLR (86/79/66) alone (all p < 0.001). Similar results were seen for %CSS – mGPS (90/79/71), NLR (91/85/75) and combined grade (92/90/77/71/67). Conclusions: The results of the present study show that the combined use of mGPS and a differential white cell-based score (NLR/LMR) stratify OS/CSS better than a single measure of preoperative SIR alone.