Serum ferritin in colorectal cancer patients and its prognostic evaluation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between preoperative serum ferritin levels, clinicopathological parameters and survival analysis of patients with colorectal cancer. Ninety-four patients (57 males) with a mean age of 65 years (39-87 years) underwent 63 curative and 31 palliative operations. Follow-up was at least 5 years. Patients were categorized with normal (30-215 ng/mL in men and 11-148 ng/mL in women), low, or high serum ferritin levels. Prognostic evaluation was undertaken with stratified survival analysis and Cox's regression model. Twenty-nine of the patients (30.9%) had raised ferritin levels and 14 (14.9%) had low values. Comparisons of the survival curves showed significant differences in stage C disease; specifically, patients with either low or high ferritin levels had a shorter survival than patients with normal levels. Patients who underwent palliative surgery and had high ferritin serum values also had a shorter survival. In multivariate analysis, the variables with a negative effect on survival were stage, serum ferritin levels and age. Our data suggest that patients with advanced colorectal cancer having normal preoperative serum ferritin levels may have a better prognosis, although the prognostic value related to this association requires further investigation.