An Investigation into the Effect of Lymph Nodes Ratio on the Prognosis of Stage III Carcinoma of the Colon and Rectum

Background & Objective:Colon cancer is currently of high incidence and mortality rate. Therefore, identifying thefactors influencing its prognosis can be very beneficial to its clinical treatment. Recentstudies have shown that lymph nodes ratio, which is obtained by dividing the number ofmetastatic lymph nodes by the total number of resected lymph nodes, can be considered as animportant prognostic factor. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of thisfactor on the prognosis of the patients presenting with stage III colon cancer and to comparethat with the effect of lymph node stage on their prognosis.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was carried out on 66 patients of stage III colon cancer. Afterselecting the cases based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, their documents werethoroughly examined and any data such as gender, age of cancer detection, tumor location,histologic grade, the total number of resected lymph nodes, the number of metastatic lymphnodes, signs of relapse like increasing serum level of CEA, liver metastasis or positivebiopsy, and, at last, patients’ death were gathered. The patients were called on to make sureof their health conditions. The results were analyzed using statistical soft-wares.Results:Lymph nodes ratio was a significant variable both in overall survival (p<0.0001) and indisease-free survival (p=0.009). Lymph node stage was significant in overall survival(p=0.008) but not in disease-free survival (p=0.05). Multivariable analysis of overall survivalshowed lymph nodes ratio as the only significant variable.Conclusion: The present study reveals that LNR is a more accurate predictive factor thanlymph node stage in overall survival and, in particular, in disease-free survival in patientswith stage III colon cancer.

کلیدواژه ها:

colon cancer ، prognosis ، lymph nodes ratio