Postoperative Fasting Blood Glucose Predicts Prognosis in Stage I-III Colorectal Cancer Patients Undergoing Resection

Abstract

Purpose. The relationship between high blood glucose and colorectal cancer (CRC) has been studied, but the role of postoperative fasting blood glucose (FBG) in patients with a prior normal FBG has never been addressed. Methods. A total of 120 CRC patients staged I-III were enrolled, and the prognostic value of postoperative FBG for disease-free survival (DFS) was determined by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to test other clinicopathological parameters, including preoperative hemoglobin (HGB) and the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR). Results. By a cut-off point of 5.11 mmol/L, 51 and 69 patients were divided into low postoperative FBG (<5.11 mmol/L) and high postoperative FBG (≥5.11 mmol/L) groups, respectively. A high postoperative FBG was more common in older age (P=0.01), left-located tumor (P=0.02), smaller tumor diameter (P=0.01), node negative involvement (P=0.01), lesser positive lymph nodes (P=0.02), and high preoperative HGB (P=0.01). Further, high postoperative FBG patients displayed a significantly better DFS than low postoperative FBG patients (48.80±22.12 months vs. 40.06±24.36 months, P=0.04), but it was less likely to be an independent prognostic factor. Conclusions. Postoperative FBG plays a temporal prognostic role for patients with stage I-III CRC with a prior normal FBG, but it is not an independent prognostic factor.