title: Are pretreatment serum albumin and cholesterol levels prognostic tools in patients with colorectal carcinoma?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of this study was to determine if pretreatment serum albumin and cholesterol levels are prognostic factors in patients with colorectal carcinomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ninety-nine patients with colorectal carcinoma were included in this study. Retrospective data analysis included the clinicopathological parameters of age and gender; emergent surgical intervention; stage at presentation; tumor location, size, and differentiation; lymph node metastases; lymphatic, venous and perineural invasion; preoperative serum albumin, cholesterol, hemoglobin, and CEA levels; the presence of preoperative and postoperative metastases; and tumor recurrence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Low levels of serum albumin, advanced TNM stage, presence of venous invasion, and high CEA levels were independently correlated with prognosis in multivariate analysis. Advanced stage and low levels of serum cholesterol were found to be a statistically significant parameter for disease free survival. Mean serum albumin levels were found to be decreased in patients with advanced stage, which correlated with increased tumor burden. Although not statistically significant for cholesterol levels, the patients with low serum albumin and low cholesterol levels had shorter overall survival than patients with normal serum albumin and normal cholesterol levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that a preoperative low level of serum albumin can be an indicator for the malignant potential of the tumor and represents an unfavorable prognosis for patients with colorectal carcinoma.
authors.affiliation: Second Surgery Clinic, Ankara Numune Teaching and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Omer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Cengiz
authors.forename: Belma
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kocer
authors.forename: Süleyman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sürmeli
authors.forename: Mary-Jo
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Santicky
authors.forename: Atilla
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soran
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000097:blood*; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012709:Serum Albumin; D002784:Cholesterol