Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Nov 7, 2015; 21(41): 11877-11886
Published online Nov 7, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i41.11877
Nomograms for colorectal cancer: A systematic review
Kazushige Kawai, Eiji Sunami, Hironori Yamaguchi, Soichiro Ishihara, Shinsuke Kazama, Hiroaki Nozawa, Keisuke Hata, Tomomichi Kiyomatsu, Junichiro Tanaka, Toshiaki Tanaka, Takeshi Nishikawa, Joji Kitayama, Toshiaki Watanabe
Kazushige Kawai, Eiji Sunami, Hironori Yamaguchi, Soichiro Ishihara, Shinsuke Kazama, Hiroaki Nozawa, Keisuke Hata, Tomomichi Kiyomatsu, Junichiro Tanaka, Toshiaki Tanaka, Takeshi Nishikawa, Joji Kitayama, Toshiaki Watanabe, Department of Surgical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan
Author contributions: Kawai K wrote the paper; Sunami E and Watanabe T designed the electronic search; Yamaguchi H, Ishihara S, Kazama S, Nozawa H, Hata K, Kiyomatsu T, Tanaka J, Tanaka T, Nishikawa T and Kitayama J performed the analysis of the search results.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Kazushige Kawai, MD, PhD, Department of Surgical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. kz-kawai@mvd.biglobe.ne.jp
Telephone: +81-3-38155411 Fax: +81-3-38116822
Received: March 26, 2015
Peer-review started: March 28, 2015
First decision: May 18, 2015
Revised: May 28, 2015
Accepted: September 30, 2015
Article in press: September 30, 2015
Published online: November 7, 2015
Processing time: 222 Days and 7.8 Hours
Abstract

AIM: To assist in the selection of suitable nomograms for obtaining desired predictions in daily clinical practice.

METHODS: We conducted electronic searches for journal articles on colorectal cancer (CRC)-associated nomograms using the search terms colon/rectal/colorectal/nomogram. Of 174 articles initially found, we retrieved 28 studies in which a nomogram for CRC was developed.

RESULTS: We discuss the currently available CRC-associated nomograms, including those that predict the oncological prognosis, the short-term outcome of treatments, such as surgery or neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and the future development of CRC. Developing nomograms always presents a dilemma. On the one hand, the desire to cover as wide a patient range as possible tends to produce nomograms that are too complex and yet have C-indexes that are not sufficiently high. Conversely, confining the target patients might impair the clinical applicability of constructed nomograms.

CONCLUSION: The information provided in this review should be of use in selecting a nomogram suitable for obtaining desired predictions in daily clinical practice.

Keywords: Colon; Rectum; Nomograms; Prognosis; Cancer

Core tip: In this review, we discuss currently available colorectal cancer (CRC)-associated nomograms, including those that predict the oncological prognosis, the short-term outcome of treatments, such as surgery or neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and the future development of CRC. This review aims to assist in the selection of suitable nomograms for obtaining desired predictions in daily clinical practice.