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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. We aimed to evaluate the correlation of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) with prognosis and clinicopathological characteristics of breast cancer. Methods. The PubMed and Embase databases were searched. Hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to summarize disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Odds ratio (OR) was used to summarize tumor clinicopathological characteristics. Results. High PLR was associated with poor DFS and OS (DFS: HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.16–1.85, and Tau2 = 0.070; OS: HR = 1.88, 95% CI = 1.27–2.80, and Tau2 = 0.192). A Galbraith plot indicated that the studies by Allan et al. and Cihan et al. contributed the heterogeneity of DFS and OS, respectively. There were significant differences in the incidence of high PLR between stage II–IV and stage I groups (OR = 1.86, 95% CI = 1.20–2.90, and Tau2 < 0.001), between lymph node-positive and lymph node-negative groups (OR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.22–1.91, and Tau2 =0.014), and between metastasis-positive and metastasis-negative groups (OR = 4.24, 95% CI = 2.73–6.59, and Tau2 < 0.001). Conclusions. Our results indicated that PLR was associated with poor prognosis of breast cancer and adequately predicted clinicopathological characteristics.

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.

Background. The clinical value of carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 in gastric cancer is controversial. We evaluated the clinicopathologic and prognostic value of CA 19-9 in gastric cancer. Methods. A literature search was conducted in PubMed and Embase databases. Odds ratios (ORs), risk ratios (RR), hazard ratios (HRs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used as effect measures. Results. Thirty-eight studies were included. Results showed that there were significant differences in the incidence of high CA 19-9 levels between stages III/IV and I/II groups (OR = 3.36; 95% CI = 2.34–4.84), the pT3/T4 and pT1/T2 groups (OR = 2.40; 95% CI = 1.60–3.59), the lymph node-positive and node-negative groups (OR = 2.91; 95% CI = 2.21–3.84), the metastasis-positive and metastasis-negative groups (OR = 2.76; 95% CI = 1.12–6.82), and vessel invasion-positive and invasion-negative groups (OR = 1.66; 95% CI = 1.11–2.48). Moreover, CA 19-9 was significantly associated with poor overall survival (HR = 1.83; 95% CI = 1.56–2.15), disease-free survival (HR = 1.85; 95% CI = 1.16–2.95), and disease-specific survival (HR = 1.33; 95% CI = 1.10–1.60) in gastric cancer. Conclusions. Our meta-analysis showed that CA 19-9 indicates clinicopathologic characteristics of gastric cancer and is associated with a poor prognosis.