To investigate the value of neutrophil/lymphocyte count ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte count ratio (PLR) combined with carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) in the early diagnosis and prognosis evaluation of colon cancer.

From May 2015 to March 2017, one hundred and eighty-nine patients with colon cancer admitted to the Second People’s Hospital of Yibin City were selected as colon cancer group, and 72 healthy volunteers were selected as control group. All the subjects underwent routine blood tests and NLR and PLR were calculated, serum CA19-9 level was detected by electrochemiluminescence, and the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to analyze the diagnostic efficiency of NLR, PLR and CA19-9 for colon cancer. According to the results of NLR, PLR, CA19-9 and combined detection, the patients were divided into positive group and negative group. Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the application value of different detection indicators in prognosis evaluation of patients with colon cancer.

Compared with the control group, the NLR, PLR and CA19-9 levels in colon cancer group were significantly higher (P<0.05). ROC analysis showed that the area under curue (AUC) of NLR was 0.787, the sensitivity 62.96%, the specificity 79.17%, and the accuracy 67.43%. The AUC of PLR was 0.776, the sensitivity 65.61%, the specificity 76.39%, and the accuracy 68.58%. The AUC of CA19-9 was 0.735, the sensitivity 61.90%, the specificity 84.72%, and the accuracy 68.20%. The sensitivity of the three combined test was 91.01%, the specificity was 97.22%, the accuracy was 92.72%; the combined test was significantly higher than single tests (P<0.05). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the overall survival (OS) of NLR, PLR, CA19-9 and the combined tests positive group were significantly lower than those of the negative group (P<0.05), while the combined HR value was the highest, which was 2.188 (χ²=15.167, P<0.001, 95%CI=1.310-3.656).

NLR and PLR combined with CA19-9 test can improve the sensitivity and accuracy of early diagnosis of colon cancer, and the three combined tests have important guiding significance for prognosis evaluation of colon cancer patients.