Circulating serum C- reactive protein: a prognostic marker in naive patients with cancer at the Yaounde General Hospital

In Cameroon, the main determinant of cancer mortality is the advanced stage at the time of diagnosis. The purpose of this work is to determine the relationship between C-reactive Protein (CRP) concentration and advanced cancer stage. This is a cross-sectional study conducted at Yaoundé General Hospital. 276 naive patients with histological evidence of cancer were included in this study. Serum CRP level was correlated with the specific characteristics of the tumor. The study population was made of 74% women and 26% men with a minimum age of 22 years and a maximum age of 80 with an average age of 46 years. The cancer type with the highest prevalence was breast cancer (43.5%), followed by Kaposi's sarcoma (8.7%), Non Hodgkin Lymphoma (8.7%), CRP values were Classified into two groups based on pathological values (CRP≥ 6 mg/l) and non-pathological values (CRP <6 mg/l). The elevated CRP concentration was not significantly associated with the presence of metastasis M (P = 0.074), T-cancer stage (P = 0.09), N-lymph nodes (P = 0.111), advanced histological grade G-3 (P = 0.115) and cancer type (P = 0.124). Our study shows that elevated serum CRP is not a marker of cancer extension