Retrospective analysis of sintilimab plus chemotherapy on peripheral blood immune cells in colorectal cancer patients
WANG Jian
WANG Xing-he
LIU Bin-yan
Abstract：Objective:To explore the effects of sintilimab combined with chemotherapy on postoperative peripheral blood immune cell counts,inflammatory markers,and prognosis in patients with stage Ⅱ～Ⅲ colorectal cancer.Methods:A retrospective analysis was conducted on 35 patients with stage Ⅱ～Ⅲ colorectal cancer admitted to the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery,Beijing Shijitan Hospital,Capital Medical University,between January 2021 and December 2023.According to postoperative adjuvant treatment regimens,patients were divided into the observation group(n=17,sintilimab combined withXELOX/FOLFOXregimen)and the control group(n=18,XELOX/FOLFOXchemotherapy alone).Changes in neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio(NLR),monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio(MLR),lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio(LMR),and leukocyte subset counts were compared between the two groups before and after treatment.Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards regression model were used to analyze progression-free survival(PFS)and prognostic factors in both groups.Results:In the observation group,lymphocyte count(1.40±0.63 vs 1.38±0.52,P=0.007)and eosinophil count(0.34±0.40 vs 0.16±0.18,P=0.004)were significantly increased after treatment compared with baseline.In the control group,monocyte count increased(0.36±0.13 vs 0.35±0.09,P=0.011),while eosinophil count decreased(0.12±0.07 vs 0.13±0.11,P=0.031)after treatment.Intergroup comparison showed that post-treatment monocyte count(0.49±0.22 vs 0.35±0.12,P=0.039)and eosinophil count(0.33±0.39 vs 0.12±0.06,P=0.030)in the observation group were significantly higher than those in the control group.Survival analysis showed that the 3-year PFS rate was significantly higher in the observation group than in the control group(88.2%vs 44.4%,P<0.05).Multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis indicated that treatment regimen was an independent protective factor for prognosis(HR=0.038,95%CI:0.003～0.444,P=0.009),and sintilimab combined with chemotherapy significantly reduced the risk of disease progression.Conclusion:Sintilimab combined with chemotherapy significantly improved postoperative peripheral blood lymphocyte and eosinophil levels,modulated tumor microenvi-ronment immune status,and markedly increased 3-year progression-free survival.Peripheral blood immune cell counts represent potential biomarkers for monitoring immunotherapy response,though their long-term clinical implications and optimal patient selection warrant further investigation in prospective,large-scale studies.
Keywords：sintilimabcolorectal cancerimmunotherapyinflammatory indicatorsperipheral blood immune cellsretrospective analysis
Publication Date：2026-07-15
Online Publishing Date：2026-08-14(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：7( 1396-1402 )