BMC Cancer (Mar 2022)

Log odds of positive lymph nodes as a novel prognostic predictor for colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  • Yiding Li,
  • Guiling Wu,
  • Yujie Zhang,
  • Ben Han,
  • Wanli Yang,
  • Xiaoqian Wang,
  • Lili Duan,
  • Liaoran Niu,
  • Junfeng Chen,
  • Wei Zhou,
  • Jinqiang Liu,
  • Daiming Fan,
  • Liu Hong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-022-09390-x
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

Read online

Abstract Background Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer in the world, which remains one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Accurate prognosis prediction of CRC is pivotal to reduce the mortality and disease burden. Lymph node (LN) metastasis is one of the most commonly used criteria to predict prognosis in CRC patients. However, inaccurate surgical dissection and pathological evaluation may lead to inaccurate nodal staging, affecting the effectiveness of pathological N (pN) classification in survival prediction among patients with CRC. In this meta-analysis, we aimed to estimate the prognostic value of the log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS) in patients with CRC. Methods PubMed, Medline, Embase, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library were systematically searched for relevant studies from inception to July 3, 2021. Statistical analyses were performed on Stata statistical software Version 16.0 software. To statistically assess the prognostic effects of LODDS, we extracted the hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) from the included studies. Results Ten eligible articles published in English involving 3523 cases were analyzed in this study. The results showed that LODDS1 and LODDS2 in CRC patients was correlated with poor OS compared with LODDS0 (LODDS1 vs. LODDS0: HR = 1.77, 95% CI (1.38, 2.28); LODDS2 vs. LODDS0: HR = 3.49, 95% CI (2.88, 4.23)). Meanwhile, LODDS1 and LODDS2 in CRC patients was correlated with poor DFS compared with LODDS0 (LODDS1 vs. LODDS0: HR = 1.82, 95% CI (1.23, 2.68); LODDS2 vs. LODDS0: HR =3.30, 95% CI (1.74, 6.27)). Conclusions The results demonstrated that the LODDS stage was associated with prognosis of CRC patients and could accurately predict the prognosis of patients with CRC.

Keywords