The prognostic role of pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio as predictors in patients with colorectal cancer: a meta-analysis

This meta-analysis was designed to analyze and evaluate the prognostic role of preoperative or pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in patients with colorectal cancer (CRC).We searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database and WanFang Database up to April 2016.A total of 16 studies (n = 5068 participants) were included for this meta-analysis. Elevated PLR has a close relationship with the poor overall survival of CRC, with the pooled hazard ratio being 1.88 (95% CI: 1.50, 2.36; p < 0.00001).This meta-analysis indicated that pretreatment PLR may be a cost-effective and noninvasive serum biomarker for poor prognosis for patients with CRC.