Increased inflammation after diagnosis of stage III colorectal cancer is linked to a 50% or higher increased risk of mortality and recurrence, US researchers report.

Results from the largest-of-its-kind study to date specifically implicate three inflammatory biomarkers — interleukin-6 (IL-6), soluble TNF-α receptor 2 (sTNF-αR2) and high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) — in worse survival outcomes in this setting.

“These findings are important to inform the role of inflammation in colon cancer prognosis among patients receiving up-to-date cancer treatment,” the authors wrote in JAMA Oncology.

The team, led by oncologist Dr Jeffrey Meyerhardt at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, examined plasma samples from 1494 patients with stage III colon cancer (median age 61) who participated in a chemotherapy trial from 2010-15.