Abstract 3227: Prognostic role of systemic inflammation in colon and rectal cancer patients: Results from the ColoCare Study

Purpose: Inflammation and angiogenesis are hallmarks of cancer development and progression. No studies have prospectively examined association of angiogenesis-related biomarkers with clinical outcomes in colon and rectal cancer. Patients and Methods: In pre-surgery serum samples from n=426 non-metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) patients (stage I-III), we investigated associations of inflammatory (e.g., CRP, SAA, sICAM-1, sVCAM-1) and angiogenesis biomarkers (VEGF-A, VEGF-D) with overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and risk of recurrence. We computed hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Analyses were adjusted for age, sex, body mass index, stage, tumor site, and study site, and also exploratory stratified by tumor site (colon vs. rectum). Results: N=65 patients (15%) were deceased and n=59 patients (15%) had a recurrence after a median follow-up of 31 months. Overall, doubling of CRP was associated with a ~24% increase in risk of death (OS: HRlog2: 1.24; 95% CI: 1.11-1.40), a 19% increase in risk of recurrence: HRlog2: 1.19; 95% CI: 1.08-1.32, and a non-statistically-significant 12% increase for DFS HRlog2: 1.12; 95% CI: 0.98-1.28. Similar associations were observed for SAA. Doubling of sICAM-1 was associated with a 4-fold increase in risk of death (OS: HRlog2: 4.05; 95% CI: 2.35-6.98). For the angiogenesis marker VEGF-D, significant heterogeneity was observed in analyses stratified by tumor site: doubling was associated with a 3-fold increase in risk of death for rectal cancer (OS: HR: 3.26; 95% CI: 1.58-6.70) and a 22% reduction in mortality for colon cancer (OS: HR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.35-1.73; pheterogenity