Background: The inflammatory indexes are attracting increasing attention as a prognostic predictor for colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the prognostic value of the preoperative lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein ratio (LCR) in patients with non-metastatic CRC remains to be established.
Methods: A total of 955 patients from 2010 to 2014 at a single center were included. Receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC) were generated to define the optimal cutoff value of the inflammatory indexes, and the areas under the curve (AUC) were calculated to compare the predictive value among the inflammatory indexes. The Fine and Gray competing risk regression model and Cox proportional hazard model were used to determine the prognostic factors for cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) by using sub-distribution hazard ratio (SHR) and hazard ratio (HR) as size effects, respectively.
Results: A ratio of 6500 was defined as the optimal cutoff value for LCR for dividing CRC patients into the high (> 6500, n = 528) and low (≤ 6500, n = 427) LCR groups. The LCR had the highest value of prognostic prediction among all inflammation-based scores. Low LCR was significant correlated with several clinicopathological features of tumor invasion and development. The patients with low LCR had poorer CSS and OS as compared to those with high LCR. Multivariate analyses showed that low LCR was independently associated with worse OS (HR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.53– 0.70) and CSS (SHR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.43– 0.71).
Conclusion: Preoperative LCR can be a useful biomarker for prognostic prediction in non-metastatic CRC patients with a better predictive value than other inflammatory indexes.
Keywords: lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein ratio, colorectal cancer, prognosis, competing risk model