Advances in systemic immune-inflammation index in peripheral blood of elder patients with gastrointestinal cancer

With the increasing degree of population aging, cancer rates are increasing among the elderly. The symptoms are often hidden, which is not easy to be detected at an early stage. Besides, different biological characteristics between the elder and the younger people make the prognostic judgment become more challenging. Therefore, it is important to search a simple and powerful prognostic index. The systemic immune inflammation index (SII), as an evaluation index of systemic inflammatory response, has been proved to be related with the prognosis in elder patients with digestive system neoplasm. The mechanism might be out of balance with pro-tumor factors and anti-tumor factors in the body under the state of tumor. After the body got out of balance, neutrophils and platelets increased, lymphocytes reduced, SII elevated. In addition, the joint detection of SII and other biomarkers, such as prognostic nutritional index, albumin-bilirubin score, carbohydrate antigen 19-9, can increase the prognostic efficacy of patients with cancer. SII could be easy obtained, easy and simple to handle, low cost and popularizing in clinical practice easily. This review summarizes the relationship of SII and gastrointestinal cancer in elder patients, wich is aimed at providing a reference for further SII research. Key words: Systemic immune inflammation index; Gastrointestinal cancer; Inflammation; Prognosis