Preoperative inflammatory response as prognostic factor of patients with colon cancer

This study aimed to investigate the abilities of the modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) and other inflammatory scores to predict recurrence-free survival (RFS) among patients with colon cancer (CC). In addition, we evaluated the abilities of the mGPS to predict recurrence of stage II disease and the efficacy of adjuvant chemotherapy (AC) for stage III disease.

This retrospective study evaluated 477 patients with stage I-III CC who underwent curative surgery. These patients were categorized as having a low mGPS (mGPS 0) or a high mGPS (mGPS 1-2).

Patients in the high mGPS group had significantly poorer RFS than patients in the low mGPS group (p < 0.01). Multivariate analysis revealed that a high mGPS independently predicted poor RFS (p < 0.01). Among patients with stage II CC, multivariate analysis revealed that the independent predictors of poor RFS were pT4 status (p < 0.01) and a high mGPS (p = 0.04). Among patients with stage III CC, AC was not significantly associated with the 5-year RFS for patients with a low mGPS (p = 0.38), although AC significantly improved the 5-year RFS for patients with a high mGPS (p < 0.01).

The preoperative mGPS significantly predicted recurrence among patients with CC, even among patients with stage II CC. In addition, mGPS may provide valuable information regarding subgroups of patients with stage III CC who might benefit from AC.