Elevated fibrinogen plasma level is not an independent predictor of poor prognosis in a large cohort of Western patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer

Table 1 Preoperative fibrinogen plasma levels (mg/dL) according to the main demographic and clinical characteristics of the 652 patients under study¹

	No. of patients	Fibrinogen plasma level		P value
		Mean value	± SD
Age (yr)				P = 0.003
≤ 68.8	326	412.1	119.8
> 68.8	326	440.3	125.1
Gender				P = 0.479
Male	373	429.1	128.3
Female	279	422.2	116.2
Tumour location				P = 0.111
Colon	536	429.8	125.0
Rectum	116	409.6	113.7
Type of surgery				P = 0.053
Elective	618	424.0	120.1
Urgent	34	466.0	167.9
Resection				P < 0.001
Yes	640	423.8	121.3
No	12	551.3	162.1
Type of resection (R)				P < 0.001
R0	556	412.4	110.4
R1	7	406.0	113.1
R2	89	513.9	159.6
Depth of invasion (pT)1				P < 0.001
pT1	86	373.7	97.1
pT2	61	373.6	89.8
pT3	259	421.5	111.1
pT4a	141	442.0	143.9
pT4b	93	482.1	118.6
Node involvement (pN)1				P = 0.001
pN0	372	408.2	108.7
pN1	166	445.0	142.6
pN2	102	446.5	119.5
Systemic metastasis (M)				P < 0.001
M0	534	412.1	109.6
M1a	69	466.8	144.1
M1b	49	522.3	170.5
CEA serum level2				P < 0.001
≤ 5 ng/mL	284	393.4	101.0
> 5 ng/mL	130	485.7	129.6

¹Depth of tumour invasion (pT) and nodal involvement (pN) were evaluated in 640 resected patients;

²CEA serum level was available for 414 patients.

Table 2 Hazard ratio of death as a function of preoperative fibrinogen plasma level (mg/dL) for the 652 patients under study¹

	Survival		Tumour-related survival
	HR (95%CI)	P value	HR (95%CI)	P value
Age (yr)		< 0.001		< 0.001
> 68.8 vs ≤ 68.8	2.55 (1.91-3.40)		2.13 (1.47-3.09)
Gender		0.298		0.155
Male vs female	1.16 (0.88-1.53)		1.31 (0.90-1.89)
Tumour location		0.368		0.928
Rectum vs colon	1.19 (0.82-1.72)		0.98 (0.59-1.61)
Type of surgery		0.180		0.805
Urgent vs elective	1.42 (0.85-2.38)		0.92 (0.49-1.74)
Type of resection (R)		< 0.001		< 0.001
R1 vs R0	1.98 (0.77-5.07)		4.39 (1.61-11.97)
R2 vs R0	2.93 (1.82-4.71)		6.46 (3.63-11.49)
Depth of invasion (pT)1		< 0.001		< 0.001
pT2 vs pT1	1.51 (0.59-3.86)		7.53 (0.88-64.83)
pT3 vs pT1	1.97 (0.93-4.13)		6.03 (0.81-44.63)
pT4a vs pT1	4.06 (1.90-8.68)		14.99 (2.02-111.57)
pT4b vs pT1	2.88 (1.30-6.37)		15.55 (2.07-117.09)
Node involvement (pN)1		< 0.001		0.135
pN1 vs pN0	1.33 (0.94-1.87)		1.51 (0.97-2.37)
pN2 vs pN0	2.45 (1.69-3.54)		1.59 (0.94-2.67)
Systemic metastasis (M)		< 0.001		< 0.001
M1a vs M0	2.62 (1.72-3.99)		4.72 (2.72-8.19)
M1b vs M0	1.88 (1.06-3.30)		2.59 (1.32-5.06)
Fibrinogen plasma value		0.355		0.313
> 400 vs ≤ 400	1.15 (0.86-1.54)		0.82 (0.54-1.21)

¹Values in parentheses are 95%CI. Hazard ratio and P values were derived from Cox regression analysis, controlling for all other variables.

Table 3 Survival rates according to TNM stage as a function of preoperative fibrinogen plasma level (mg/dL) for the 556 R0 patients under study

	Survival		Tumour-related survival
	5-yr rate	P value	5-yr rate	P value
Stage I		0.812		0.674
Fibrinogen ≤ 400 mg/dL	91.5		98.3
Fibrinogen > 400 mg/dL	88.2		95.2
Stage II		0.036		0.467
Fibrinogen ≤ 400 mg/dL	81.7		92.2
Fibrinogen > 400 mg/dL	74.0		92.1
Stage III		0.206		0.627
Fibrinogen ≤ 400 mg/dL	70.6		81.8
Fibrinogen > 400 mg/dL	60.8		85.0
Stage IV		0.566		0.213
Fibrinogen ≤ 400 mg/dL	30.0		31.8
Fibrinogen > 400 mg/dL	40.4		61.2