The impact of the preoperative peripheral lymphocyte count and lymphocyte percentage in patients with colorectal cancer

Purpose We evaluated the prognostic significance of the peripheral lymphocyte count and lymphocyte percentage, which reflect the preoperative immune status, in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC) and then compared their accuracy as predictors of the survival. Methods We retrospectively reviewed a database of 362 patients. We classified the patients into high lymphocyte count and low lymphocyte count groups. We also classified the patients into high lymphocyte percentage and low lymphocyte percentage groups. Results The 5-year relapse-free survival (RFS) rate in the high lymphocyte count group tended to be higher than that in the low lymphocyte count group. The 5-year overall survival (OS) rate in the high lymphocyte count group was significantly higher than that in the low lymphocyte count group. In contrast, the 5-year RFS and OS rates in the high lymphocyte percentage group were both significantly higher than those in the low lymphocyte percentage group. A multivariate analysis showed that the lymphocyte percentage was independently associated with the OS. Conclusions These findings suggest that the lymphocyte percentage is a good predictor of the OS and may be a stronger predictor of survival than the lymphocyte count in CRC patients.