Combined fibrinogen concentration and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio as a prognostic marker of gastric cancer

Certain patients with early gastric cancer succumb to recurrent disease and cancer-associated complications. The key cause of recurrence is challenging to determine, since clinical blood markers that are able to predict the tumor properties of gastric cancer are limited. The present study investigated the fibrinogen concentration and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in blood specimens from patients with gastric cancer, and assessed the clinical applicability of combining the fibrinogen concentration with the NLR (CFS-NLR) as a prognostic marker of gastric cancer. The present study consisted of 275 patients with gastric cancer, who were divided into three groups: Those possessing hyperfibrinogenemia (>= 305 mg/dl) and a high NLR (>= 2.34; CFS-NLR 2 group); those possessing either hyperfibrinogenemia or a high NLR (CFS-NLR 1 group); or those that possessed neither abnormality (CFS-NLR 0 group). The CFS-NLR was significantly associated with the depth of tumor invasion, lymph node metastasis, lymphovascular invasion and tumor stage (P<0.0001). The prognostic differences among the three groups were significant (P=0.0016). Therefore, the CFS-NLR may be a potentially useful blood marker for predicting tumor progression and the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.