Purpose: The relationship between recurrence and systemic inflammation in the early postoperative period of colorectal cancer (CRC) is unclear, and no study has examined changes in recurrence risk resulting from postoperative inflammation. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic impact of severe postoperative inflammatory response after curative resection of CRC.
Methods: Subjects were 422 consecutive CRC patients who underwent curative surgery between 2012 and 2016, with a follow-up period of 5 years after surgery. The prognostic impacts of high and low postoperative C-reactive protein (CRP) levels were examined, and temporal changes in recurrence risk were examined using hazard function analysis.
Results: Patients were divided into high (n = 68) and low (n = 354) CRP groups using CRP 12.5 mg/dL as the cut-off based on receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Multivariable analysis revealed that high CRP was a significant predictor of recurrence (hazard ratio: 2.21; p < 0.001). According to the hazard function of recurrence risk, the hazard rate of the low CRP group peaked at 8.4 months postoperatively (peak hazard rate: 0.0073/month) and decreased thereafter, while that of the high CRP group peaked at 5.6 months (0.0142/month) and was persistently higher than that of the low CRP group for the study duration.
Conclusions: A severe inflammatory response in the early postoperative period of CRC increased the recurrence risk, and the recurrence hazard of patients with high CRP levels was earlier and persistently higher than that of patients with low CRP levels. CRC patients with high CRP levels may require more frequent follow-up.
Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Hazard function; Postoperative inflammation; Recurrence hazard.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.