Value of preoperative peripheral blood inflammation markers in predicting prognosis after radical gastric cancer surgery

We aimed to systematically investigate the association between ten preoperative peripheral blood inflammatory markers and the clinicopathologic characteristics and outcomes of gastric cancer (GC) and develop a prediction model for overall survival (OS) based on these markers. We conducted retrospective analyses of the clinicopathological data of 921 patients with gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy, adjusting baseline characteristics using propensity score matching (PSM). Patients were divided into high and low inflammation categories using optimal cutoff values to examine variations in clinicopathological characteristics and OS between the groups. Subsequent regression analyses were performed to determine the independent prognostic factors of OS, and a nomogram for predicting OS was developed and validated. After balancing the baseline characteristics of deceased and surviving patients by PSM, we identified significant differences in the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, systemic immune inflammation index, inflammation-combined prognostic index, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio-CA 19 − 9 score (NCS), and hemoglobin, albumin, lymphocytes, and platelet scores between the two groups. Furthermore, the high inflammation group had poorer clinicopathologic features and prognosis than the low inflammation group. Multivariate regression analysis revealed that age, body mass index, American Joint Committee on Cancer T-stage, lymph node ratio, and NCS were significant prognostic factors influencing OS. Ultimately, we created a nomogram using these factors and a web calculator for estimating OS. Patients with higher inflammation scores often exhibit unfavorable clinicopathological features and have a poorer prognosis. The developed nomogram model and web-based calculator more accurately predict long-term survival of GC, offering a new reference for clinical application.