Role of C‐reactive protein in urological cancers: A useful biomarker for predicting outcomes

Abstract

Abbreviations & AcronymsAbstract: Based on increasing evidence of the association between cancer-related inflammation and the progression of cancer, the external symptoms of systemic inflammatory response has been shown to be an indicator for the prognosis of many malignancies, including urological cancers. C-reactive protein, a representative acute-phase reactant, is a significant and sensitive inflammatory marker that can be objectively measured using reliable assays in clinical practice worldwide. C-reactive protein has been shown to be significant in the prediction of outcomes of urological cancers. The elevation of C-reactive protein levels, which indicate the presence of cancer-associated systemic inflammatory response, is linked to poorer survival in patients with urological cancers, including renal cell carcinoma, upper urinary tract and bladder cancers, and prostate cancer. With this strong prognostic ability, C-reactive protein can be incorporated into prognostic models and will make them simpler and improve their predictive accuracy. Furthermore, the longitudinal change of C-reactive protein level, C-reactive protein kinetics, provides additional information on patient survival outcomes. As such, C-reactive protein can be used to monitor treatment efficacy and disease course using serial measurements. In testicular cancer, C-reactive protein is associated with a risk of late complications, such as cardiovascular disease, and with the development of second non-germ-cell cancer. Taken together, these findings show that C-reactive protein can act as an important biomarker for urological cancers. This review discusses the importance of C-reactive protein as a prognostic biomarker in urological cancers on the basis of the currently available evidence.

Impact of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio on effects of targeted therapy for metastatic renal cell carcinoma patients with extrapulmonary metastasis

“…15 Patients with advanced RCC sometimes show paraneoplastic syndrome with fever and leukocytosis. The involvement of several molecules related to inflammation, such as interleukin-6 , 16 nuclear factor-kappa B, 17 and CRP, 10,11,13 on the progression of RCC have been previously demonstrated. A high NLR is associated with a poor prognosis in many solid tumours.…”

“…8,9 Parameters of inflammatory response, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), have been reported as prognostic markers in urological cancers. [10][11][12] The implication of CRP for predicting the prognosis or the effect of agents has also been demonstrated with targeted therapy in RCC. 13 Besides CRP, the elevation of the neutrophils-to-lymphocytes ratio (NLR) has been reported as a prognostic factor in cancers, including RCC.…”

Prognostic Significance of C-reactive Protein in Urological Cancers: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

“…The prognosis for patients with elevated CRP concentration is poor. The underlying inflammatory process related to cancer plays an important role in the progression of renal cell carcinoma (Saito and Kihara, 2013). On the one hand, immunotherapy, relying on the host mounting a cytotoxic immune response to the tumor, has shown a survival advantage for men with advanced prostate cancer.…”

Cancer and the microbiome: potential applications as new tumor biomarker

“…Previous studies showed that the phagocytosis of apoptotic cells increases the level of anti-inflammatory mediators supporting Inflammatory responses are stopped following the removal of pathogens; however, they can persist in the case of chronic infection, resulting in tissue fibrosis and carcinogenesis by the establishment of adverse inflammatory cycles [66][67][68]. The characteristics of chronic inflammation are inflammatory foci directed by plasma cells, lymphocytes and macrophages, generating a high level of cytokines, growth factors, chemokines, nitrogen species and reactive oxygen, which may be responsible for incessant tissue damage [69,70].…”