title: Serum ferritin in colorectal cancer patients and its prognostic evaluation.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between preoperative serum ferritin levels, clinico-pathological parameters and survival analysis of patients with colorectal cancer. Ninety-four patients (57 males) with a mean age of 65 years (39-87 years) underwent 63 curative and 31 palliative operations. Follow-up was at least 5 years. Patients were categorized with normal (30-215 ng/mL in men and 11-148 ng/mL in women), low, or high serum ferritin levels. Prognostic evaluation was undertaken with stratified survival analysis and Cox's regression model. Twenty-nine of the patients (30.9%) had raised ferritin levels and 14 (14.9%) had low values. Comparisons of the survival curves showed significant differences in stage C disease; specifically, patients with either low or high ferritin levels had a shorter survival than patients with normal levels. Patients who underwent palliative surgery and had high ferritin serum values also had a shorter survival. In multivariate analysis, the variables with a negative effect on survival were stage, serum ferritin levels and age. Our data suggest that patients with advanced colorectal cancer having normal preoperative serum ferritin levels may have a better prognosis, although the prognostic value related to this association requires further investigation.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, University of Siena, Siena, Italy. lorenzi@unisi.it
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lorenzi
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lorenzi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vernillo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D012044:Regression Analysis
chemical_list: D005293:Ferritins