BackgroundTo investigate the role of pre-treatment inflammatory indexes (II) as predictors of prognosis and treatment efficacy in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer mCRC randomized onto the prospective multicenter randomized ITACa (Italian Trial in Advanced Colorectal Cancer) trial to receive first-line chemotherapy (CT) with or without bevacizumab (Bev).ResultsIn the overall population, PFS and OS were higher in patients with low SII (p = .015 and .002, respectively), low NLR (p = .0001 and <.0001, respectively) and low PLR (p = .004 and .008, respectively). Patients with low NLR in the CT plus Bev arm had a higher PFS than those treated with CT alone (HR = 0.69, p = .021).Patients and MethodsTwo hundred and eighty-nine patients were considered for this study, 141 receiving CT plus Bev and 148 receiving CT alone. The pre-treatment systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were evaluated to identify a potential correlation with progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in both the overall population and the 2 treatment arms.ConclusionOur results indicate that II, in particular NLR, are good prognostic and predictive markers for mCRC patients who are candidates for CT plus Bev.

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Performance status, white blood cells count, histology and brain metastases resulted in our series prognostic factors of survival in NSCLC patients treated with chemotherapy at a multivariate analysis. Leukocyte count resulted the stronger factor after performance status. If prospectly validated, the proposed prognostic model could be useful to stratify performance status 2 patients in specific future trials.

BackgroundTo investigate the impact of pre-treatment lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels on the outcome of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated with first-line chemotherapy with or without the anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody, bevacizumab, in a phase III prospective multicentre randomized ITACa (Italian Trial in Advanced Colorectal Cancer) trial.MethodsThree hundred and seventy patients enrolled onto the ITACa first-line trial were considered for this study, 176 receiving chemotherapy (either FOLFIRI or FOLFOX) plus bevacizumab and 194 receiving chemotherapy only. Pre-treatment LDH levels were evaluated to identify a potential correlation with progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS) and objective response rate.ResultsInformation on pre-treatment LDH levels was available for 344 patients. High LDH levels were predictive of a lower median PFS (8.1 months vs. 9.2 months, p< 0.0001) and median OS (16.1 months vs. 25.2 months, p< 0.0001) in the overall population. In the chemotherapy plus bevacizumab group, median PFS was 9.1 and 9.8 months in patients with high LDH and low LDH, respectively (p= 0.073), whereas in the chemotherapy-only arm it was 6.9 and 9.1 months, respectively (p < 0.0001). In patients with high LDH, the addition of bevacizumab to chemotherapy led to a reduction in the rate of progressive disease (16.4 vs. 30.5%, p= 0.081) and to a prolonged PFS (p= 0.028).ConclusionA high LDH value was confirmed as a marker of poor prognosis. Bevacizumab reduced the progressive disease rate and improved PFS in the high-LDH subgroup, making serum LDH a potentially effective an easily available and marker to select patients who benefit from bevacizumab.Trial Registration NCT01878422 ClinicalTrials.gov