the correlation between serum c-reactive protein and staging of gastric and colon cancers in the patients reffered to firoozgar hospital from march 2010 to august 2011

introduction: c - reactive protein (crp) is an acute-phase plasma protein that can be used as a marker of activation of the immune system. in response to several inflammatory reactions,the concentration of crp increases and recently have been applicated as a cancer detector in some studies. we aimed to evaluate the relation between crp level and the staging and grading of gastric and colon malignancies that are the most common gastrointestinal cancers. methods and materials: in this analytic cross sectional study, 100 patients with gastric and colon cancer referred to firoozgarâ hospital from march 2010 to august 2011 , were recruited. the diagnosis of cancer was confirmed with multiple biopsies and pathologic study. the exclusion criteria were as follow being febrile or having any clinical evidence of infection ,diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune disease via history and record of the patients. the stage and grade of cancers were determined by two expert pathologists. a 5 cc blood sample was taken from anticobital vein of each patient before any intervention such as surgery, chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy was done and crp quantitative levels were assessed by elisa technique. crp level more than 5 mg/dl was assumed as abnormal. correlation between crp and staging, grading and the location of tumor (gastric and colon malignancies) and the type of tumor (adenocarcinoma and large cell lymphoma) was evaluated. results: there was no significant correlation between crp level and the type of tumor (p=0.32) or location of the tumor (p=0.83).a significantly positiveâ  correlation was seen between crp level and the stage of gastric and colon cancers (p=0.02) as well as crp level and the grade of these tumors(p=0.03). conclusion: crp blood level correlates with the staging and grading of the gi cancer and the level of crp rises as the stage and grade of the tumor developes.