The Prognostic Value of B12/CRP Ratio (BCR) in Patients Diagnosed With Solid Cancer

This study aimed to determine the prognostic effect of the serum vitamin B12 level/CRP ratio (BCR) on patients diagnosed with solid cancer.

Patients >18 years diagnosed with solid cancer were included in the study, the data of the patients were retrospectively examined, and the cut-off values for BCR were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Accordingly, grouping was performed, appropriate statistical analyses were performed, and P < .05 was accepted as the significance limit value.

The median age of the 344 patients included in the study was found to be 60.9 (range: 27-88) years. Around 56.6% (n = 174) of the patients had nondistant metastatic group and 49.4% (n = 170) had metastatic group. The median follow-up period of the patients was found to be 46.8 (range: 4-63) months. In the metastatic group, mortality was statistically significantly 2.1 times higher in those with a BCR cut-off value <3.5 (95% confidence interval [CI]; 1.4-3.2, P < .001). In the nonmetastatic group, mortality was statistically significantly twice higher in those with a BCR cut-off value <3.8 (95% CI; 1.4-3.3, P < .001). In addition, mortality was statistically significantly higher in high-risk patients in the nonmetastatic group (63.8% (n = 188) vs 45.5% (n = 156) (P < .001). The mOS period for patients in the high-risk group was 42.8 ± 1.4 (95% CI: 40.1-45.5) months, the mOS period for patients in the low-risk group was 51.5 ± 1.3 (95% CI: 49.0-54.0) months, and the mOS period for the entire group was 46.8 ± 1.0 (95% CI: 44.8-48.7) months (P < .001).

In conclusion, our study has shown that BCR, which has not been reported in the literature to date, is one of the cheapest and easily accessible inflammation markers that can determine prognosis in cancer patients.