Year: 2025
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Aim: The role of chronic inflammation in the genesis and promotion of cancer has been established lately by various researchers. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and CRP-to-albumin ratio, and their diagnostic and prognostic significance, are currently under review. The current paper presents a preliminary study on the Greek population of patients suffering from Colorectal Cancer (CRC) to test the correlation between the inflammation markers and the possibility of nodal metastases. Materials and methods: Retrospective study of all patients treated surgically for CRC in our Surgical Department during the period 2018-2021. We categorized patients as elective and complicated cases, urgently leading to the operating room. We calculated the preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and CAR (CRP/albumin ratio) of the two groups. The primary endpoint of this study was the evaluation of the prognostic significance of NLR, PLR, and CAR as markers predictive of nodal metastases. Secondary endpoints were the set of cut-off values for each of these markers in the elective and emergency groups. Results: Overall, 131 patients were included in the study, 89 of whom were treated electively. For all the biomarkers, statistically significant differences were detected between the elective and the emergency surgery groups. The only marker that was found to have prognostic significance on the nodal status was the CAR value, with a cut-off value calculated at 4.7 [sensitivity (61.82%) and specificity (66.67%)]. Conclusion: The inflammation markers previously proved to be related to CRC differ between patients treated electively and urgently. Better categorization of patient populations should be used to get more accurate results. CAR seems to be able to predict nodal metastases preoperatively. Further large-scale studies are needed to validate our results.
Source: Folia Medica
Language: English
Subfield: Oncology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4415438486