Monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio as a prognostic factor in peripheral whole blood samples of colorectal cancer patients

Table 4 Prognostic factors of 5-yr disease-free survival in patients with colorectal cancer

Variables	Univariate P value	Multivariate P value	HR (95%CI)
Age, ≤ 60 vs ≥ 60 yr	0.207	-	0.665 (0.325-1.253)
Sex (female vs male)	0.466	-	0.982 (0.937-1.030)
Tumour growth (expanding vs infiltrate)	0.815	-	1.103 (0.484- 2.514)
Tumour size (< 2.5 cm vs 2.5-5 cm vs > 5 cm)	0.082	-	0.613 (0.354-1.064)
TNM stage (I-IV)	0.487	-	0.919 (0.726-1.164)
Adenocarcinoma type (nonmucin vs partim mucin)	0.701	-	1.326 (0.312-5.627)
Grade of malignancy (2 vs 3)	0.489	-	0.575 (0.119-2.762)
Preoperative treatment (yes vs no)		-
pT stage (1-4)	0.074	-	1.895 (0.937-3.832)
Venous invasion (yes vs no)	0.315	-	0.453 (0.096-2.121)
Lymphatic invasion (yes vs no)	0.633	-	1.486 (0.290-7.599)
Perineural invasion (yes vs no)	0.677	-	0.776 (0.236-2.552)
Number of lymph nodes removed (< 5 vs 5-10 vs < 10)	0.140	-	1.036 (0.988-1.087)
Lymph node metastasis (yes vs no)	0.050a	0.105	0.813 (0.653-1.013)
Type of lymph node metastasis (micro vs macro)	0.369	-	0.747 (0.369-1.411)
Number of metastatic lymph nodes (< 5 vs > 5)	0.806	-	1.188 (0.290-4.741)
Lymph node pouch invasion (yes vs no)	0.529	-	0.719 (0.257-2.006)
Distant metastasis (yes vs no)	0.933	-	0.954 (0.324-2.812)
Distant metastasis size (< 10 mm vs > 10 mm)	0.371	-	1.109 (0.883-1.394)
Tumour deposits (yes vs no)	0.536	-	1.242 (0.623-2.475)
Inflammatory cell infiltration in the invasive front (present vs absent)	0.991	-	0.997 (0.642-1.549)
Monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio before surgery (low vs high)	0.996	-	1.001 (0.548-1.826)
Monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio after surgery (low vs high)	0.005a	0.034a	2.903 (1.368-6.158)

^aP < 0.05. TNM stage: Tumour-Node-Metastasis; MLR: Monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio.