The Prognostic Value of Lymph Node Ratio in Patients with Node-Positive Colorectal Cancer

Aim: Lymph node metastasis is one of the most important prognostic factors in colorectal cancer. We investigated the prognostic value of lymph node ratio (LNR); (the ratio of the number of metastatic lymph nodes to the number of removed lymph nodes) in node-positive colorectal cancer patients. Method: We assessed 321 node-positive colorectal cancer patients. To determine the LNR threshold value that will separate patients in two prognostic groups with significantly different cancer-specific survival (CSS) rates, survival analyses were conducted with LNR threshold values between 0.05 and 0.95, at increments of 0.05. Results: In the whole series, the most significant LNR threshold value separating patients in low-risk (213 patients) and high-risk (108 patients) groups in terms of CSS was 0.40 (p