A decreased preoperative platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, systemic immune-inflammation index, and pan-immune-inflammation value are associated with the poorer survival of patients with a stent inserted as a bridge to curative surgery for obstructive colorectal cancer

Purpose Inflammation is one of the hallmarks of cancer, and inflammation-based markers that are calculated easily from laboratory results have shown predictive abilities. We investigated the prognostic values of the preoperative platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) in patients with non-metastatic obstructive colorectal cancer (OCRC) and a self-expandable metallic stent inserted as a bridge to curative surgery. Methods The subjects of this retrospective study were 86 patients with pathological stage I to III OCRC. We examined the associations of these biomarkers with short- and long-term outcomes. Results Multivariate analyses revealed that a preoperative PLR < 149, SII < 597, and PIV < 209 were independently associated with poorer relapse-free survival (RFS) (P = 0.007, P < 0.001, and P = 0.002, respectively) and that a PIV < 209 was independently associated with poorer cancer-specific survival (P = 0.030). A platelet count < 240 was significantly associated with worse RFS, whereas the lymphocyte count was not. Pre-stenting PLR < 221 was an independent poor prognostic factor for RFS (P = 0.045). Conclusion This study showed that decreased preoperative PLR, SII, PIV, and pre-stenting PLR were associated with poorer RFS, contrary to the findings of most previous studies. Our results suggest that platelets and obstruction contributed primarily to the opposite relationships, which might provide new insight into the possible pathophysiology of platelet-tumor interactions generated in the OCRC environment.

Automated summary

This study investigated the prognostic values of the preoperative platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and pan-immune-inflammation value (PIV) in non-metastatic obstructive colorectal cancer (OCRC) patients. The results showed that decreased PLR, SII, PIV, and pre-stenting PLR were associated with poorer relapse-free survival (RFS), contrary to the findings of most previous studies. These findings provide new insight into the possible pathophysiology of platelet-tumor interactions in the OCRC environment.