Background: Systemic inflammation via host-tumor interactions is currently recognized as a hallmark of cancer. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic value of various combinations of inflammatory factors using preoperative blood, and to assess the clinical significance of our newly developed inflammatory score in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients. Method: In total 477 CRC patients from the discovery and validation cohorts were enrolled in this study. We assessed the predictive impact for recurrence using a combination of nine inflammatory markers in the discovery set, and focused on lymphocyte-C-reactive protein ratio (LCR) to elucidate its prognostic and predictive value for peri-operative risk in both cohorts. Results: A combination of lymphocytic count along with C-reactive protein levels demonstrated the highest correlation with recurrence compared with other parameters in CRC patients. Lower levels of preoperative LCR significantly correlated with undifferentiated histology, advanced T stage, presence of lymph node metastasis, distant metastasis, and advanced stage classification. Decreased preoperative LCR (using an optimal cut-off threshold of 6000) was an independent prognostic factor for both disease-free survival and overall survival, and emerged as an independent risk factor for postoperative complications and surgical-site infections in CRC patients. Finally, we assessed the clinical feasibility of LCR in an independent validation cohort, and confirmed that decreased preoperative LCR was an independent prognostic factor for both disease-free survival and overall survival, and was an independent predictor for postoperative complications and surgical-site infections in CRC patients. Conclusion: Preoperative LCR is a useful marker for perioperative and postoperative management of CRC patients.

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Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) promotes and facilitates migration and invasion of epithelial tumor cells. EMT is induced by factors such as hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). This study aimed to establish whether the HGF/c‐Met pathway is associated with gastric cancer metastasis; especially peritoneal dissemination. HGF and c‐Met expression and EMT‐related molecules were evaluated using real‐time PCR and immunohistochemistry. The role of the HGF/c‐Met pathway in EMT and anoikis was determined, and kinase inhibitor SU11274 was tested for its ability to block HGF‐induced biological effects. In HGF−/c‐Met+ gastric cancer cells, recombinant HGF promoted an EMT phenotype that was characterized by morphology, impaired E‐cadherin and induction of vimentin. HGF promoted cell growth, invasiveness and migration and inhibition of anoikis. SU11274 blocked HGF‐induced EMT and biological effects in vitro. In HGF+/c‐Met+ gastric cancer cells, HGF did not affect the biological outcome of EMT and anoikis, but SU11274 exerted the same inhibitory effects as in HGF−/c‐Met+ cells. In vivo, HGF+/c‐Met+ gastric cancer cells only established peritoneal dissemination and SU11274 inhibited tumor growth. Clinically, HGF expression was significantly correlated with c‐Met expression in gastric cancer. Increased HGF and c‐Met had a significant association with poor prognosis and predicted peritoneal dissemination. We demonstrated that the HGF/c‐Met pathway induces EMT and inhibition of anoikis in gastric cancer cells. Co‐expression of HGF and c‐Met has the potential to promote peritoneal dissemination in gastric cancer. Blockade of the autocrine HGF/c‐Met pathway could be clinically useful for the treatment of peritoneal dissemination in gastric cancer.

Serum miR-1290 is a novel biomarker for early detection, recurrence, and prognosis in CRC.

Sarcopenia is predictive of SSI after pouch surgery for ulcerative colitis.