title: Prognostic model built on blood-based biomarkers in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We had previously showed that the neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) are prognostic factors for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) patients. In this study we developed a prognostic model based on these three indices.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 243 patients who were initially diagnosed as mCRC between 2005 and 2010 in the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center were studied. The endpoint was overall survival (OS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  NLR>3, elevated GGT and elevated CEA were confirmed as independent risk factors which could predict poor prognosis. Patients could be divided into three groups according to the number of risk factors they had. Those with two or three were defined as the high risk group, individuals with one risk factor as the modest risk group and patients without risk factor as the low risk group. The OS values for these three groups were 16.2 months (2.80~68.8), 24.2 months (4.07~79.0), and 37.2 months (12.6~87.8), respectively (p<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We developed a simple but useful model based on NLR, GGT and CEA to provide prognostic information to clinical practice in highly selected mCRC patients. Further prospective and multi-center studies are warranted to test our model.
authors.affiliation: Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center; State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangzhou, China E-mail : xialiangping@163.com.
authors.forename: Wen-Zhuo
authors.initials: WZ
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Chen-Xi
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: Gui-Fang
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Ru-Ming
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Rong
authors.forename: Hui-Juan
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.forename: Xu-Xian
authors.initials: XX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Bei
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Liang-Ping
authors.initials: LP
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000097:blood*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000166:cytology; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D005723:gamma-Glutamyltransferase