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Background. The prognostic value of preoperative anemia in gastric cancer remains unclear. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative anemia in gastric cancer. Methods. We searched Embase and PubMed databases for relevant studies from inception to March 2018. The prognostic value of preoperative anemia in gastric cancer was determined by calculating the hazard ratio (HR) and the corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) as effect measures. A random effect model was used in cases in which there was significant heterogeneity; otherwise, a fixed effect model was used. Statistical analyses were performed using Stata software. Results. Seventeen studies involving 13,154 gastric cancer patients were included. The estimated rate of preoperative anemia was 36% (95%CI=27-44%). The overall survival of preoperative anemia was poor (HR=1.33, 95%CI=1.21-1.45). Moreover, disease-free survival was significantly lower in patients with preoperative anemia compared with those without this condition (HR=1.62, 95%CI=1.13-2.32). These findings were corroborated by the results of subgroup analyses. Conclusions. The results indicate that preoperative anemia predicts poor prognosis in gastric cancer, including overall survival and disease-free survival. Therefore, preoperative anemia may be a convenient and cost-effective blood-derived prognostic marker for gastric cancer.

Background.The aims of this study were to evaluate the clinicopathological and prognostic values of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in colorectal cancer (CRC).Methods.The PubMed and Embase databases and the references of relevant studies were systematically searched. This study was performed with hazard ratios (HRs) and odd ratios (ORs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as effect measures.Results.Our results indicated that elevated PLR was associated with poor overall survival (HR = 1.46, 95% CI = 1.23–1.73), disease-free survival (HR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.17–2.30), cancer-specific survival (HR = 1.30, 95% CI = 1.12–1.51), and recurrence-free survival (HR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.09–1.74) in CRC. For the clinicopathological characteristics, our results indicated that there were differences in the rate of elevated PLR between stages III/IV and I/II groups (OR = 1.38, 95% CI = 1.01–1.88), pT3/T4 and pT1/T2 groups (OR = 1.82, 95% CI = 1.03–3.20), and poor differentiation and moderate/well differentiation (OR = 2.59, 95% CI = 1.38–4.84).Conclusions.Our results indicated that elevated PLR predicted poor prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics in CRC and PLR is a convenient and low-cost blood-derived prognostic marker for CRC.