Preoperative Delta Neutrophil Index, Platelet Lymphocyte Ratio and Immature Granulocyte Count for Differentiating Metastatic Colon Cancer from Non-Metastatic Colon Cancer: A Retrospective Study

AIM: Immature granulocytes show bone marrow activation before neutrophil response and there are studies in the literature showing that the number of immature granulocytes is an auxiliary marker in the diagnosis and treatment of different diseases. The Delta Neutrophil Index (DNI), Immature Granulocyte Count (IGC) have previously been studied as markers in thyroid and breast cancers. The aim of this study was to determine whether immature granulocyte IGC and DNI values measured in preoperative blood parameters have a diagnostic benefit for the detection of advanced colon cancer. METHODS: A study was conducted on patients who had undergone selective operation for colon cancer in our clinic from February 2015 to February 2020. The patients were divided into two groups: early stage (stage I–III) and advanced stage (stage IV) colon cancer. The IGC and DNI values as well as other hematological parameters, demographic parameters (sex, age) in these two groups were compared. RESULTS: A total of 43 patients with mean age 67.47 (35–96) years were included in the study. Eighteen of the patients were male and 25 were female. When the early stage and advanced stage colon cancer groups were compared, no statistically significant difference was found between age, sex, white blood cell count, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio, eosinophil count, basophil count, mean platelet volume and: systemic immune-inflammation index score. It was observed that platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, IGC and DNI or Immature Granulocyte Percentage (IGP) values were statistically significantly higher in the metastatic colon cancer group compared to the non-metastatic group. When the specificity and sensitivity of laboratory markers in metastatic colon cancer were examined, it was observed that the specificity and sensitivity of DNI or IGP and IGC were statistically higher than other values. CONCLUSIONS: DNI, IGC and PLR values, which are the parameters measured in the preoperative period are easily measurable laboratory parameters and do not involve additional costs in differentiating metastatic from non-metastatic colon cancer in the preoperative period.