Table 1.
Clinicopathologic characteristics, preoperative systemic inflammatory response markers, and postoperative metastatic pattern of patients with stage III colon cancer
| Variable | Overall [cases (%)] | High PNI group [cases (%)] | Low PNI group [cases (%)] | P value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 274 | 152 (55.5) | 122 (44.5) | |
| Age (years) | ||||
| ≤ 60 | 189 (69.0) | 112 (73.7) | 77 (63.1) | 0.061 |
| > 60 | 85 (31.0) | 40 (26.3) | 45 (36.9) | |
| Sex | 0.274 | |||
| Male | 156 (56.9) | 91 (59.9) | 65 (46.7) | |
| Female | 118 (43.1) | 61 (40.1) | 57 (53.3) | |
| Baseline BMI (kg/m2) | 0.154 | |||
| < 18.5 | 28 (10.2) | 11 (7.2) | 17 (13.9) | |
| 18.5–25.0 | 187 (68.2) | 105 (69.1) | 82 (67.2) | |
| > 25.0 | 59 (21.5) | 36 (23.7) | 23 (18.9) | |
| Hemoglobin (g/L) | < 0.001 | |||
| < 90 | 42 (15.3) | 11 (7.2) | 31 (25.4) | |
| ≥ 90 | 232 (84.7) | 141 (92.8) | 91 (74.6) | |
| Tumor location | < 0.001 | |||
| Right-sided colon | 103 (37.6) | 44 (28.9) | 59 (48.4) | |
| Left-sided colon | 171 (62.4) | 108 (71.1) | 63 (51.6) | |
| Tumor size (cm) | < 0.001 | |||
| ≤ 4 | 140 (51.1) | 91 (59.9) | 49 (40.2) | |
| > 4 | 134 (48.9) | 61 (40.1) | 73 (59.8) | |
| Differentiation | 0.962 | |||
| Well/moderate | 207 (75.5) | 115 (75.7) | 92 (75.4) | |
| Poor/undifferentiated | 67 (24.5) | 37 (24.3) | 30 (24.6) | |
| T stage | 0.754 | |||
| T1–T2 | 12 (4.4) | 6 (3.9) | 6 (4.9) | |
| T3 | 121 (44.2) | 70 (46.1) | 51 (41.8) | |
| T4 | 141 (51.5) | 76 (50.0) | 65 (53.3) | |
| N stage | 0.762 | |||
| N1 | 189 (69.0) | 106 (69.7) | 83 (68.0) | |
| N2 | 85 (31.0) | 46 (30.3) | 39 (32.0) | |
| TNM stage | 0.290 | |||
| IIIA | 10 (3.6) | 6 (3.9) | 4 (3.3) | |
| IIIB | 202 (73.7) | 117 (77) | 85 (69.7) | |
| IIIC | 62 (22.6) | 29 (19.1) | 33 (27.0) | |
| Preoperative serum CEA level (ng/mL) | 0.031 | |||
| ≤ 5 | 159 (58.0) | 97 (63.8) | 62 (50.8) | |
| > 5 | 115 (42.0) | 55 (36.2) | 60 (49.2) | |
| Cycles of XELOX adjuvant chemotherapya | 0.296 | |||
| < 6 | 53 (19.3) | 26 (17.1) | 27 (22.1) | |
| 6–8 | 221 (80.7) | 126 (82.9) | 95 (77.9) | |
| LMR | ||||
| ≤ 4.00 | 144 (52.6) | 59 (38.8) | 85 (69.7) | < 0.001 |
| > 4.00 | 130 (47.4) | 93 (61.2) | 37 (30.3) | |
| NLR | ||||
| ≤ 2.05 | 134 (48.9) | 90 (59.2) | 44 (36.1) | < 0.001 |
| > 2.05 | 140 (51.1) | 62 (40.8) | 78 (63.9) | |
| PLR | ||||
| ≤ 142.99 | 134 (48.9) | 102 (67.1) | 32 (26.2) | < 0.001 |
| > 142.99 | 140 (51.1) | 50 (32.9) | 90 (73.8) | |
| Postoperative metastasisb | 53 (19.3) | 22 (14.5) | 31 (25.4) | 0.024 |
| Liver metastasis | 21 (7.7) | 9 (5.9) | 12 (9.8) | 0.231 |
| Lung metastasis | 12 (4.4) | 5 (3.3) | 7 (5.7) | 0.331 |
| Abdominopelvic metastasis | 16 (5.9) | 5 (3.3) | 11 (9.0) | 0.053 |
PNI prognostic nutritional index, BMI body mass index, TNM stage clinical tumor-node-metastasis stage, CEA carcinoembryonic antigen, LMR lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio, NLR neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, PLR platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio
aXELOX adjuvant chemotherapy was administrated as follow: oxaliplatin 130 mg/m2 administered intravenously on day 1 and capecitabine 1000 mg/m2 administered orally twice daily on days 1–14 for a 3-week cycle
bThe metastatic sites of 4 patients were not recorded