ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Colorectal Cancer
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1666891
This article is part of the Research TopicEmerging Trends in Cancer Research: Diagnostic and Therapeutic BreakthroughsView all 11 articles
Recognition of the novel items for prediction of bone metastasis in colorectal cancer
Provisionally accepted
Chen Min1
Wang Xuan1
Shuheng Bai1
Ning Lan1
Jun-Yang Wang2
Yanke Chen2
Gao Ying1
Wenjuan Wang3
Xiao Shang3
Min Jiao2Zhang Xiangxiang1
Fang Wu1Li Wenyang1Liu Wanyi1
Hu Feng Yuan1
Chen Ling3
Juan Ren3*- 1Department of Radiotherapy Oncology, the First Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xian, Shanxi, China
- 2School of Basic Medical Sciences of Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710061, China, xian,shanxi province, China
- 3The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
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Objective: To explore whether uric acid (UR), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and uric acid/albumin ratio (UAR) can predict bone metastasis in colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: A single-center retrospective study was conducted studying patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer attending The First Affiliated Hospital of Xian JiaoTong University between January 2016 and December 2021. Patients were categorized into groups with and without bone metastasis. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis assessed the diagnostic accuracy of CRC bone metastases, with subsequent combined ROC curve analysis. Differences among the AUCs were calculated and compared by Delong test. Logistic regression analysis was utilized to assess the impact of these parameters on CRC bone metastasis. Results: A total of 156 patients (32%) exhibited bone metastases from CRC. In these patients, levels of uric acid (UA), uric acid ratio (UAR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 199 (CA199), and carbohydrate antigen 724 (CA724) were significantly elevated. The diagnostic performance of UA, UAR and NLR is surpassed that of traditional colorectal cancer markers. The area under the curve (AUC) for the combination UA, UAR and NLR with colorectal cancer tumor markers was significantly more effective in predicting bone metastasis (P < 0.001) compared to the AUC without this combination. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified UA, NLR and CEA as independent risk factors for bone metastasis in colorectal cancer. Conclusions: UA, UAR and NLR serve as valuable makers for predicting bone metastases in patients with colorectal cancer. The integration of UA, UAR, NLR, CEA, CA199 and CA724 may enhance the prediction of bone metastases in colorectal cancer.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, bone metastasis, Uric Acid, Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, Uric acid/albumin ratio
Received: 19 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Min, Xuan, Bai, Lan, Wang, Chen, Ying, Wang, Shang, Jiao, Xiangxiang, Wu, Wenyang, Wanyi, Feng Yuan, Ling and Ren. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Juan Ren, 869491533@qq.com
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