PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - MASATSUNE SHIBUTANI
AU  - KIYOSHI MAEDA
AU  - HISASHI NAGAHARA
AU  - YASUHITO ISEKI
AU  - TETSURO IKEYA
AU  - KOSEI HIRAKAWA
TI  - Prognostic Significance of the Preoperative Ratio of C-Reactive Protein to Albumin in Patients with Colorectal Cancer
DP  - 2016 Mar 01
TA  - Anticancer Research
PG  - 995--1001
VI  - 36
IP  - 3
4099  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/36/3/995.short
4100  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/36/3/995.full
SO  - Anticancer Res2016 Mar 01; 36
AB  - Background: Inflammation has been reported to play an important role in cancer progression, and several inflammatory markers, such as the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS), have been reported to be prognostic markers. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of the ratio of C-reactive protein to albumin (CRP/ALB ratio) in patients with colorectal cancer who undergo potentially curative surgery. Patients and Methods: A total of 705 patients who underwent potentially curative surgery for colorectal cancer were enrolled. The CRP/ALB ratio was calculated form the preoperative samples by dividing the serum C-reactive protein level by the serum albumin level. We evaluated the correlation between the CRP/ALB ratio and survival. Furthermore, we compared the accuracy of the CRP/ALB ratio as a predictor for survival with the mGPS. Results: We set 0.0271 as the cut-off value for the CRP/ALB ratio according to a receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. Based on the cut-off value of 0.0271, 347 patients were classified into the low CRP/ALB ratio group and 358 patients were classified into the high CRP/ALB ratio group. The group with high CRP/ALB ratio had significantly worse relapse-free survival (p=0.0003) and cancer-specific survival (p=0.0026) rates than those of the low CRP/ALB ratio group. According to a multivariate analysis, the CRP/ALB ratio was identified as an independent prognostic factor for relapse-free survival (p=0.025) and cancer-specific survival (p=0.045). Moreover, even in a sub-analysis limited to patients with an mGPS of 0, the high CRP/ALB ratio group had significantly worse relapse-free survival (p=0.0015) and cancer-specific survival (p=0.0131) rates than the low CRP/ALB ratio group. Conclusion: The preoperative CRP/ALB ratio is a useful prognostic marker in patients with colorectal cancer who undergo potentially curative surgery. Moreover, the CRP/ALB ratio may be superior to the mGPS for predicting survival.