Prognostic factors for survival in advanced appendiceal cancers

Appendiceal cancer is a rare malignancy. The optimal pathologic classification and prognostic factors for survival and treatment strategies remain poorly understood.

The aim of this retrospective cohort study was to determine prognostic factors, including markers of systemic inflammation, for survival in a cohort of patients with advanced appendiceal adenocarcinomas.

The study included patients with advanced appendiceal carcinoma that were treated between January 2006 and June 2012. The associations between age, gender, histopathologic subtype of appendiceal malignancy and treatment with heated intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) and overall survival (OS) were assessed. The relationship between various markers of inflammation (platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio) and OS was also evaluated.

A total of 49 patients met eligibility criteria. Female gender and low-grade adenocarcinoma were associated with increased OS. These data suggest that the use of HIPEC treatment may also be associated with improved OS, but the difference was not statistically significant (HR = 0.37 [0.12-1.18], p = 0.09). We found no evidence of an association between markers of inflammation at diagnosis and OS.

Histopathologic subtype and gender are associated with OS in patients with advanced appendiceal carcinoma. Baseline platelet levels, NLR, and PLR do not appear to be predictive of OS in this setting.