[Significance of preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a predictor of prognosis in patients with stage IV colorectal cancer].

This study aimed to investigate the clinical significance of preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio(NLR)as a predictor of prognosis in patients with Stage IV colorectal cancer. A total of 130 patients who underwent operation for Stage IV colorectal cancer were enrolled in the study. Of the patients, 69 had an NLR of ≥ 3.0 and were defined as the high-NLR group. Patients who received preoperative therapy and underwent emergency operation for perforation were excluded from the analysis. The 2-year survival rate was 58.1% in the high-NLR group and 43.5% in the low-NLR group. The median survival time was 38.0 months in the high-NLR group and 22.3 months in the low-NLR group. The patient prognosis in the high-NLR group was significantly worse than that in the low-NLR group. A univariate analysis indicated that high NLR, peritoneal dissemination, curability C, histological type( non-differentiated), and number of organs involved in metastasis (more than 1 organ) were the risk factors of poor survival. All of these factors, except peritoneal dissemination, were independent risk factors for poor survival on multivariate analysis. A high preoperative NLR may be considered as a convenient biomarker to identify patients with a poor prognosis after operation for stage IV colorectal cancer.