Table 1.
Overview of CRP values reported in various cancers distinguishing Conventional CRP levels (≥ 10 μg/ml) from High Sensitivity (hsCRP) levels (< 10 μg/ml).
| Tissue affected by cancer | Notes and generalized conclusions | CRP levels reported* | References** | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conventional CRP(≥ 10 μg/ml) | hsCRP(1-10 μg/ml) | |||
Lung
|
• Higher conventional levels correlate with tumor size and staging (2) • Higher levels (before or after surgery) are indicators of poor prognosis (1) • Smoking and hsCRP levels did not correlate with increased risk for lung adenocarcinoma (9) • Smoking and lung function with hsCRP can predict bronchial dysplasia than can progress to cancer (14) • Conventional CRP above 40 μg/ml is predictive of metastasis (17) • CRP levels do correlate with level of inflammation which is more pronounced in cancer than COPD (18) |
4–20 (1) >20 (1) 13.4 ± 8.6 (2) 114.2 ± 60.1 (2) 84 ± 88 (5) ≥10 (7) 7.1–100 (8) ≥10 (9) 1–30 (10) 4.14–87.9 (11) 143 max (12) >101–122.6 (15) >40 (17) 22.49 ± 2.31 (18) 20.42 ± 1.95 (18) 10.27 + 2.12 (19) 66.35 (20) 71.20 (20) 96.30 (20) |
<3 (1) 5.4 ± 9 (3) 6.4 ± 7.9 (3) <1 (4) ≥5.6 (4) <5 (5,6, 16) ≥5 (5,6) 0–0.7 (11) 0.7–1.76 (11) 1.77–4.13 (11) 3 (12) 1–5 (13) >0.5 (14) 8.37 + 0.91 (18) |
(1) Alifano et al. (16) (2) Aref and Refaat (17) (3) Bittoni et al. (18) (4) Chaturvedi et al. (19) (5) Hara et al. (20) (6) Hara et al. (21) (7) Jin et al. (22) (8) Jing et al. (23) (9) Koch et al. (24) (10) Liao et al. (25) (11) Muller et al. (26) (12) Pastorino et al. (27) (13) Shinohara et al. (28) (14) Sin et al. (29) (15) Szturmowicz et al. (30) (16) Tomita et al. (31) (17) Torrecilla et al. (32) (18) Vagulienė et al. (33) (19) Wei et al. (34) (20) Zhao et al. (35) |
| Breast | • Elevated conventional CRP levels are associated with reduced overall and disease-free survival and increased risk of death (21) • hsCRP levels are not predictive in post-menopausal breast cancer incidence or in apparently healthy women (25) |
≥16.4 (21) 12 ± 8 (22) 42 ± 12 (22) >10 (23,24) 0.1–39.5 (26) 0.1–73 (26) 0.6–33.6 (29) >10 (30) |
1.5–10 (24,25) 4.93 ± 6.65 (26) 5.26 ± 8.59 (26) 1.0 ± 1.3 (27) 1.5 ± 1.7 (27) >5 (28) 5.1 + 5.3 (29) >3 (31) 2.6 (32) |
(21) Allin et al. (36) (22) Asegaonkar et al. (37) (23) Gathirua-Mwangi et al. (38) (24) Guo et al. (39) (25) Nelson et al. (40) (26) Rodriguez-Gil et al. (41) (27) Sabiston et al. (42) (28) Sicking et al. (43) (29) Thomson et al. (44) (30) Villaseñor et al. (45) (31) Wang et al. (46)(32) Zhang et al. (47) |
| Colon and Rectum | • Higher hsCRP associates with higher risk for colon but not rectal cancer (33) • Conventional CRP levels associate with colorectal cancer mortality (36) • CRP gene rs1205 polymorphism was not associated with the risk of colorectal cancer (35) |
>10 (36,38) 30 (37) 0–196 (37) 0.01–22.8 (41) |
1.1–5.6 (33) 1–4.7 (33) 2.69 (34) 1.97 (34) <2.1 (36) 2.2–5.0 (36) 5.1–10 (36) 3 (39) 4.1 ± 3.2 (39) 1–10 (39,42,43) 1.07–4.36 (40) 2.86–5.20 (40) 0.6 (41) |
(33) Aleksandrova et al. (48) (34) Erlinger et al. (49) (35) Fang and Ye (50) (36) Goyal et al. (51) (37) Holm et al. (52) (38) Ishizuka et al. (53) (39) Lumachi et al. (54) (40) Nimptsch et al. (55) (41) Shibutani et al. (56) (42) Toiyama et al. (57) (43) Zhou et al. (58) |
| Esophagus | • Elevated serum CRP was associated with poor overall survival (44-47) | ≤10 (44) 5–10 (45) 3 (46) 2–10 (47) |
(44) Badakhshi et al. (59) (45) Huang et al. (60) (46) Katano et al. (61) (47) Zheng et al. (62) |
|
| Gastrointestinal Tract | • Elevated conventional CRP is associated with progressive disease and advanced stage disease and correlates with worse survival (49) • Higher conventional CRP levels correlate with advanced stage metastatic cancer (50) • Post-operative levels are useful to monitor infections (51) |
17 (48) 0.08–231.7 (49) ≥10 (50,52) 177 (51) |
<3 (49) 1.6 (49) |
(48) Baba et al. (63) (49) Chang et al. (64) (50) Shimura et al. (65) (51) Shishido et al. (66) (52) Yu et al. (67) |
| Head and Neck | • Pre-operative levels are prognostic of oral cancer (55) • Elevated levels associate with worse prognosis (53) • CRP may contribute to tongue squamous cell carcinoma (56) • CRP levels associate with perceived pain and inflammatory process (57) |
<20 (57) | 2–8 (53) <10 (54) ≥5 (55) |
(53) Fang et al. (68) (54) He et al. (69) (55) Tai et al. (70) (56) Du et al. (71) (57) Oliveira et al. (72) |
| Liver | • CRP levels correlate with hepatocellular carcinoma aggressiveness (58) • Elevated CRP correlates with poor prognosis and is useful in staging (59) |
10–50 (58) >50 (58) ≥ 10 (59) |
<10 (58) | (58) Carr et al. (73) (59) Kinoshita et al. (74) |
|
Reproductive Organs
• Ovary • Prostate |
• Elevated CRP associates with increased risk and survival • Higher Levels are measured in platinum-resistant ovarian tumors (68) • CRP/Albumin ratios are prognostic (69) • Pre-diagnostic hsCRP levels are not predictive of risk (65) • CRP levels are not as predictive in clinically localized prostate cancer compared to advanced disease (66) • High levels associate with metastasis and worse survival (64) |
36 ± 48 (60) 60 ± 66 (60) 28 ± 38 (60) >10 (61; 62) <12 (63) 0.02–29.9 (64) |
≤10 (61,68,69) 1.24 ± 2.94 (65) <4 (66) ≥8.6 (67) |
(60) Hefler et al. (75) (61) Li et al. (76) (62) Lundin et al. (77) (63) Graff et al. (78) (64) Liu et al. (79) (65) Platz et al. (80) (66) Schnoeller et al. (81) (67) Thurner et al. (82) (68) Xu et al. (83) (69) Liu et al. (84) |
| Pancreas | • Elevated levels associate with poor outcomes (70) • Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios with CRP levels have prognostic value (71) |
3–50 (70) 0.1–219 (71) |
>4.5 (71) 3–10 (72) |
(70) Chen et al. (85) (71) Inoue et al. (86) (72) Stevens et al. (87) |
| Kidney and Urinary tract | • CRP levels can predict mortality (73), treatment outcome and tumor recurrence in solid tumor renal cell carcinoma and digestive tumors [Shotriya et al. (15)] • Preoperative values are predictive of survival and end stage disease requiring hemodialysis (74) • Elevated preoperative levels correlate with aggressive tumor biology (76) • Elevated CRP/Alb ratio correlate with poor survival after or partial nephrectomy (78) |
24.3 ± 50.1 (73) 1.5–15 (77) |
<5 (74) <3 (75) <9 (76) |
(73) Hsiao et al. (88) (74) Omae et al. (89) (75) Teishima et al. (90) (76) Aziz et al. (91) (77) Dai et al. (92) (78) Guo et al. (93) |
| Blood | • Higher CRP levels are a poor prognostic indicator in large B-cell lymphoma (79) • Measuring CRP has value in melanoma (80) |
<15 (79) | <10 (80) | (79) Troppan et al. (94) (80) Fang et al. (95) |
| Sarcomas | • Increased preoperative CRP is prognostic of poorer outcomes in bone cancer (82) and Soft tissue sarcoma (84) | 43 (85) 0.1–342 (84) ≥8 (81, 82) 0.1–34.2 (83) |
(81) Fang et al. (96) (82) Li et al. (97) (83) Nakamura et al. (98); Nakamura et al. (99) (84) Wang et al. (100) (85) Yanagisawa et al. (101) |
|
| Adult Solid Tumors: Renal Cell Solid Carcinoma & Digestive Solid Tumors | • CRP as a predictor of prognosis, treatment outcome or tumor recurrence (86) | >10, >35, >50, >150 (86) | <1 – >9.8 (86) | (86) Shrotriya et al. (15) |
*Conventional CRP levels (≥ 10µg/ml) are summarized separately from high sensitivity levels (hsCRP: < 10µg/ml) to help differentiate FDA defined diagnostic relevance from putative microinflammatory responses suggested by reported levels of hsCRP.
**The parenthetical number assigned to each reference is used to indicate where the CRP and hsCRP values, notes and general conclusions are derived within this table.