Table 4.
Meta-analysis of the association between the C-reactive protein to albumin ratio and clinicopathological characteristics
| Characteristic | No. of studies | OR (95% CI) | p value | Heterogeneity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I2 (%) | p value | ||||
| Age (> median vs. < median) | 4 | 1.470 (1.028–2.102) | 0.007 | 15.853 | 0.312 |
| Gender (male vs. female) | 7 | 1.452 (1.167–1.807) | 0.001 | 18.219 | 0.291 |
| Location (colon vs. rectum) | 5 | 1.724 (1.156–2.570) | 0.008 | 35.14 | 0.187 |
| Location (right vs. left) | 3 | 1.106 (0.586–2.089) | 0.756 | 49.317 | 0.139 |
| Differentiation (poor vs. mod./well) | 5 | 1.611 (1.195–2.172) | 0.002 | 0 | 0.587 |
| Stage (III/IV vs. I/II) | 2 | 2.255 (1.642–3.095) | < 0.001 | 0 | 0.688 |
| pre-treatment CEA (high vs. low)a | 3 | 2.111 (1.028–4.337) | 0.042 | 85.982 | 0.001 |
| Tumor size (≥ 50 mm vs. < 50 mm) | 1 | 3.687 (2.608–5.211) | < 0.001 | - | - |
| Lymphatic invasion (yes vs. no) | 4 | 1.020 (0.659–1.579) | 0.929 | 79.615 | 0.002 |
| NLR (high vs. low)b | 2 | 2.452 (1.381–4.354) | 0.002 | 42.753 | 0.186 |
| mGPS (1 vs. 0) | 5 | 21.405 (6.468–70.835) | < 0.001 | 66.499 | 0.018 |
CEA carcinoembryonic antigen, CI confidence interval, mGPS modified Glasgow prognostic score, NLR neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, OR odds ratio
aTwo studies used CEA 5 ng/mL as the cut-off value, and one study used CEA 8.7 ng/mL as the cut-off value
bThe cut-off values were chosen as 3.0 and 2.9, respectively