Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. May 27, 2025; 17(5): 104394
Published online May 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i5.104394
Nutritional and inflammatory indicators differ among patients with colorectal cancer with distinct microsatellite stability statuses
Hao Zuo, Zheng Yuan, Meng-Hui Gu, Wei Xu, Jia-Hui Zhou, Yan Zhang, Xin-Hua Gu
Hao Zuo, Zheng Yuan, Meng-Hui Gu, Wei Xu, Jia-Hui Zhou, Yan Zhang, Xin-Hua Gu, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Gusu school of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China
Co-first authors: Hao Zuo and Zheng Yuan.
Co-corresponding authors: Yan Zhang and Xin-Hua Gu.
Author contributions: Zhang Y and Gu XH designed the study and acquired funding, they contributed equally as co-corresponding authors; Zuo H and Yuan Z were responsible for developing the methodology, they contributed equally as co-first authors; Gu MH, Xu W, and Zhou JH participated in the formal analysis and investigation; Zuo H wrote the original draft; Gu XH, Yuan Z, Zhang Y, and Zuo H participated in the review and editing.
Supported by Grants of the Suzhou Medical Key Discipline, No. SZXK202109; Suzhou Clinical Key Disease Project, No. LCZX202111; and Suzhou Promoting Health through Science and Education Research Project, No. KJXW2021028.
Institutional review board statement: The protocols of the study were approved by the Ethnics Committees of the Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yan Zhang, Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Suzhou Municipal Hospital, Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Gusu school of Nanjing Medical University, No. 26 Daoqian Street, Gusu District, Suzhou 215000, Jiangsu Province, China. zhangyan_china@163.com
Received: December 19, 2024
Revised: March 14, 2025
Accepted: March 31, 2025
Published online: May 27, 2025
Processing time: 155 Days and 10.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Nutritional and inflammatory indicators are crucial in assessing the nutritional health and immune function of patients with cancer, which are factors closely associated with the diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC).

AIM

To explore the relationship between nutritional and inflammatory indicators and microsatellite stability (MSS) status in CRC.

METHODS

The clinical data of 56 patients who underwent surgical treatment for CRC were collected. Furthermore, the expressions of nutritional (levels of serum albumin, triglycerides, serum cholesterol, and body mass index) and inflammatory response indicators (absolute neutrophil count, absolute lymphocyte count, absolute monocyte count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio) as well as their correlation with microsatellite instability (MSI) status were investigated in patients with CRC.

RESULTS

Compared to the patients with MSS tumors, those with MSI tumors demonstrated significantly lower levels of two nutritional indicators, namely serum albumin and body mass index (P < 0.05). Moreover, patients in the MSI group demonstrated significantly lower absolute lymphocyte counts and higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio than those in the MSS group (P < 0.05), indicating pronounced differences in inflammatory responses and immune states between the two groups.

CONCLUSION

Certain nutritional and inflammatory indicators exhibit significant differences among patients with MSI and MSS CRC, highlighting their potential role in the clinical treatment and health management of this specific population.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Microsatellite instability; Nutritional indicators; Tumor markers; Inflammatory indices; Diagnosis

Core Tip: Our study of 56 patients with colorectal cancer revealed significant correlations between microsatellite instability status and nutritional and inflammatory markers. Compared to microsatellite stability tumors, high microsatellite instability tumors were associated with lower values of serum albumin, body mass index, and higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, underscoring the distinct immunological and inflammatory profiles in patients with these two tumor types.