Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021;18(2):1626-1632.

CRP is a superior and prognostically significant inflammation biomarker for hepatocellular cancer patients treated by liver transplantation

Brian I Carr  1 , Volkan Ince  1 , Harika Gozukara Bag  2 , Sertac Usta  1 , Veysel Ersan  1 , Burak Isik  1 , Sezai Yilmaz  1
Affiliations

CRP is a superior and prognostically significant inflammation biomarker for hepatocellular cancer patients treated by liver transplantation

Brian I Carr et al. Clin Pract (Lond). 2021.

Abstract

Background: Inflammation and its markers are considered prognostically important for many cancers, including Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). However, it is not really clear which markers are the best.

Aims: To assess in a cohort of prospectively-evaluated HCC patients who were treated with liver transplant and whose survival was known, multiple commonly used inflammatory markers in relation to survival and to both clinical and tumor aggressiveness parameters.

Results: Amongst 330 transplanted HCC patients, CRP was found to be the only significant inflammatory marker for survival, on multivariate Cox regression analysis. NLR, PLR, GGT, AST, ALT and the Glasgow inflammation score were also found to be significant, but on univariate analysis only. CRP was significant in patients with both small (< 5 cm) and large HCCs and in patients with elevated or low Alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) levels. Comparison of HCC patients with high (>2.5 mg/ dL) compared low serum CRP levels showed significant differences for blood levels of NLR, LMR, Hb, total bilirubin and liver transaminases, as well as Maximum Tumor Diameter (MTD) and percent of patients with Portal Vein Thrombosis (PVT).

Conclusions: Elevated serum CRP levels were associated with significantly increased MTD and percent of patients with PVT and significantly worse overall survival in HCC patients who were treated by liver transplantation.

Keywords: CRP; HCC; cox; survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve for blood CRP values (mg/dL).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Virchow RLK. Die krankhaften Geschwülste. Berlin: August Hirschwald. (1863).
    1. Hussain SP, Harris CC. Inflammation and cancer: an ancient link with novel potentials. Int J Cancer. 121: 2373–2380 (2007). - PubMed
    1. Hanahan D, Weinberg RA. Hallmarks of cancer: the next generation. Cell. 144: 646–674 (2011). - PubMed
    1. Refolo MG, Messa C, Guerra V, et al. Inflammatory Mechanisms of HCC Development. Cancers (Basel: ). 12: 641 (2020). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bishayee A. The role of inflammation and liver cancer. Adv Exp Med Biol. 816: 401–435 (2014). - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources