Objectives: This retrospective study evaluated the prognostic significance of inflammation markers (IMs) in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). Methods: A total of 101 patients—44 (43.6%) were female, and 57 (56.4%) were male—were included in the study. All medical records were reviewed retrospectively. The cut-off values for the IMs (c-reactive protein (CRP), CRP/albumin ratio (CAR), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and systemic immune-inflammatory index (neutrophils × platelets)/lymphocytes) (SIII)) were defined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Overall survival (OS) was plotted using the Kaplan–Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Cox regression analysis was performed for univariate and multivariate analyses, and hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to quantify the indices estimating the survival. Results: ROC analysis was performed to determine the optimal prognostic value of each parameter. Accordingly, CRP: 11 mg/dL, NLR: 2.4, PLR: 137, SIII: 798, and CAR: 2.7 were determined as cut-off values for predicting OS based on the areas under the curve (AUC) in the ROC analysis (CRP: 0.742, p<0.001 (sensitivity: 66%, specificity: 82%); NLR: 0.720, p<0.001 (sensitivity: 78%, specificity: 62%); PLR: 0.631, p=0.040 (sensitivity: 72%, specificity: 48%); SIII: 0.695, p=0.002 (sensitivity: 68%, specificity: 72%); CAR: 0.742, p<0.001 (sensitivity: 72%, specificity: 48%)). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that PLR is an independent prognostic factor for OS (p<0.001) in patients with mCRC. Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest that pretreatment PLR might be an independent prognostic marker for patients with mCRC and might have value compared with other established inflammation-based prognostic scores. Keywords: C-Reactive protein to albumin ratio, metastatic colorectal cancer, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet to lymphocyte ratio, prognostic score
Corresponding Author: Tarik Demir