C-reactive protein as a prognostic predictor for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer after intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin therapy: A Japan Urological Oncology Group study analysis

Objective: To investigate the involvement of pretreatment C-reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the prognosis of patients who underwent intravesical bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) therapy for non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC).

Methods: The clinicopathological data of 1709 patients with NMIBC who underwent initial intravesical BCG therapy after transurethral resection of bladder tumor were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the outcome of intravesical BCG therapy in a multicenter study conducted by the Japan Urological Oncology Group. The prognoses of these patients were analyzed to determine whether the biomarkers (CRP and NLR) could predict the efficacy of intravesical BCG therapy. Patients were divided into two groups according to the pretreatment CRP and NLR, with cutoff values defined as CRP ≥ 0.5 mg/dl and NLR ≥ 2.5, based on several previous reports.

Results: In the univariable analysis, CRP ≥ 0.5 mg/dl was significantly associated with intravesical recurrence, cancer-specific survival, and bladder cancer (BC) progression, while NLR ≥ 2.5 was not significantly associated with patient prognosis. In the multivariable analysis, CRP ≥ 0.5 mg/dl was significantly associated with intravesical recurrence and BC progression. The concordance index was used to examine the accuracy in predicting recurrence and progression events. While CRP was slightly, though not statistically significant, inferior to the European Association of Urology risk classification, the combination of them showed improved predictive accuracy.

Conclusion: This study suggests that CRP can be a prognostic factor after intravesical BCG therapy and may provide useful data for determining treatment and follow-up strategies for patients with NMIBC.