Study population
A total of 1030 patients initially diagnosed with stage IV CRC were identified. Of these, patients with missing laboratory data (n=16), patients with histologic diagnoses other than adenocarcinoma (e.g., neuroendocrine tumor) (n=5), and patients with appendiceal cancer (n=9) or anal canal cancer (n=4) were excluded. Therefore, the study cohort consisted of 996 patients with stage IV CRC (Fig. 1). Follow-up was conducted for the entire cohort, with a median follow-up time of 53 months (range, 1-228 months) among survivors.
Patient characteristics
Relationships between clinicopathological characteristics and CONUT score, PNI, and mGPS are summarized in Table 1. Among the 996 CRC patients included in this study, 573 (58%) were male and 423 (42%) were female, with a median age of 61.0 years (range, 20-91 years). The median PNI was 48.5 (range, 24.5-68.0). According to ROC curve analysis of death within 2 years after diagnosis, 48.0 was set as the cut-off value of PNI (sensitivity: 57.3%, specificity: 64.7%). The median CONUT score was 1 (range, 0-11) and the median mGPS was 0 (range, 0-2). Almost two thirds of patients were categorized into the low-CONUT group (0/1), whereas 28% and 11% were categorized into the intermediate-CONUT group (2/3) and high-CONUT group (≥4), respectively. Statistical analyses revealed significant associations between high CONUT scores and low BMI (<20 kg/m2) (p<0.001), worse ECOG performance status (PS2, PS3, PS4) (p<0.001), right-sided primary tumor (p=0.004), high CEA levels (≥30 ng/ml) (p<0.001), and low rate of curative resection (p<0.001). Significant associations were also observed between low PNI and older age (≥65 years) (p<0.001), female (p=0.041), low BMI (p<0.001), worse ECOG performance status (p=0.001), right-sided primary tumor (p<0.001), high CEA levels (p<0.001), and low rate of curative resection (p<0.001), and between mGPS=2 and low BMI (p<0.001), worse ECOG performance status (p<0.001), right-sided primary tumor (p=0.035), high CEA levels (p<0.001), low rate of M1a (p<0.001), and low rate of curative resection (p<0.001).
Survival
OS curves according to CONUT score, PNI, and mGPS are provided in Figs. 2A-2C. Median survival time was 30.3 months in the low-CONUT group, 23.3 months in the intermediate-CONUT group, and 16.6 months in the high-CONUT group, with 3-year OS rates of 44.5%, 35.6%, and 24.3%, respectively, and 5-year OS rates of 27.3%, 19.8%, and 16.3%, respectively (p<0.001). Higher CONUT scores were significantly associated with worse prognoses (Fig. 2A).
Median survival time was 33.8 months in the high-PNI group and 19.8 months in the low-PNI group, with 3-year OS rates of 48.1% and 29.5%, respectively, and 5-year OS rates of 29.0% and 17.8%, respectively (p<0.001). The low-PNI group showed a significantly shorter OS than the high-PNI group (p<0.001) (Fig. 2B).
Median survival time was 37.3 months in the mGPS=0 group, 16.1 months in the mGPS=1 group, and 14.7 months in the mGPS=2 group, with 3-year OS rates of 51.7%, 19.3%, and 17.3%, respectively, and 5-year OS rates of 31.0%, 12.7%, and 10.2%, respectively (p<0.001). OS was significantly shorter in mGPS=2 and mGPS=1 groups compared to the mGPS=0 group (p < 0.001) (Fig. 2C).
Clinical factors affecting prognosis
In univariate analysis, CONUT score (p<0.001), PNI (p<0.001), and mGPS (p<0.001), as well as gender (p=0.028), BMI (p=0.008), ECOG performance status (p<0.001), CEA levels (p<0.001), histological type (p<0.001), M category (p<0.001), and surgical treatment (p<0.001), were associated with prognosis.
Subgroup analyses were performed by dividing the patients into those who underwent curative resection (n= 302) and those who underwent palliative resection of primary tumor / no resection (n= 694). Kaplan-Meier survival curves comparing OS between the two subgroups according to the three nutritional and inflammatory measures are shown in Figs. 3A-3F. OS curves for both subgroups showed similar trends to the overall results (Curative resection: CONUT score, p=0.024; PNI, p=0.073; mGPS, p=0.064; Palliative resection of primary tumor / no resection: CONUT score, p=0.012; PNI, p<0.001; mGPS, p<0.001).
Multivariate analyses were performed, adjusting for clinical factors that were significant in univariate analyses (gender, BMI, ECOG performance status, CEA levels, histological type, M category, and surgical treatment); ‘age’ was also included given the prior knowledge according to TNM eighth edition [1]. All three measures were found to be independent prognostic factors for OS in patients with stage IV CRC (CONUT score, p<0.001; PNI, p<0.001; mGPS, p<0.001). Significant differences in OS were found between the low-CONUT group and intermediate-CONUT group (HR=1.20, 95% CI: 1.02-1.42, p=0.032), low-CONUT group and high-CONUT group (HR=1.57, 95% CI: 1.23-1.98, p<0.001), and intermediate-CONUT group and high-CONUT group (HR=1.30, 95% CI: 1.01-1.67, p=0.045). In contrast, for mGPS, significant differences in OS were found between mGPS=0 and mGPS=1 groups (HR=1.84, 95% CI: 1.54-2.19, p<0.001) and mGPS=0 and mGPS=2 groups (HR=2.06, 95% CI: 1.65-2.55, p<0.001), but not between mGPS=1 and mGPS=2 groups (HR=1.12, 95% CI: 0.88-1.41, p=0.349). For PNI, the low-PNI group had a significantly lower OS rate than the high-PNI group (HR=1.39, 95% CI: 1.19-1.62, p<0.001) (Table 2).