20.500.12556/DiRROS-28790 Preoperative serum C-reactive protein levels are elevated in uterine sarcoma compared with leiomyoma a retrospective cohort study Background: Uterine sarcomas are rare but highly aggressive mesenchymal malignancies associated with poor survival. Preoperative differentiation from benign leiomyomas remains a critical oncologic challenge, frequently resulting in unexpected postoperative diagnoses and potential tumour dissemination during morcellation. Reliable, accessible biomarkers to support preoperative risk assessment are lacking. This study evaluated whether CRP, a systemic inflammatory marker implicated in tumour biology, could aid in the preoperative identification of uterine sarcoma. Methods: This retrospective single-centre study included 39 patients with histologically confirmed uterine sarcoma and 39 patients with leiomyoma treated between 2010 and 2021. Preoperative serum CRP levels were compared between groups. As data were non-normally distributed, the Mann–Whitney U test was used for comparisons, and Spearman’s rank correlation was applied for association analyses. Results: Patients with sarcoma were significantly older than controls (56.2 ± 12.9 vs. 39.2 ± 6.7 years, p < 0.0001). Preoperative CRP levels were significantly higher in sarcoma patients compared with leiomyoma patients (26.4 ± 46.8 mg/L vs. 0.4 ± 1.6 mg/L; p < 0.001). Elevated CRP (>5 mg/L) was observed in 53.8% of sarcoma cases versus 2.6% of controls. Undifferentiated sarcomas demonstrated the highest CRP levels. CRP levels were not significantly associated with tumour aggressiveness. A moderate negative correlation between age and preoperative CRP was identified (r = −0.476, p = 0.029). Receiver operating characteristic analysis demonstrated a moderate discriminatory ability of preoperative CRP for differentiating uterine sarcoma from leiomyoma (AUC 0.751, 95% CI 0.668–0.834). Conclusions: Elevated preoperative CRP levels are significantly associated with uterine sarcoma and may enhance oncologic risk stratification prior to surgery. Integration of CRP into multimodal preoperative assessment algorithms could improve surgical planning and reduce the risk of inadvertent tumour dissemination. Prospective multicentre studies are required to validate its diagnostic performance and define clinically relevant cut-off values. sarcoma CRP diagnostics true false true Angleški jezik Ni določen Neznano 2026-04-07 13:59:22 2026-04-07 13:59:22 2026-04-08 03:47:43 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 Nasl. z nasl. zaslona; Opis vira z dne 7. 4. 2026; str. 1-14 no. 7, [article no.]1154 Vol. 18 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 618.1 2072-6694 10.3390/cancers18071154 274305283 RAZ_Colja_Monika_2026.pdf RAZ_Colja_Monika_2026.pdf 1 E7214A91FE5996C6B5421BB2FF936104 3c32e56dbd0b1ea83ca84ec00b71874fb74e3546283756f4211cf81e4de55679 5a8d3f75-3279-11f1-b7aa-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=42874 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/18/7/1154 1 382b19f5-3279-11f1-b7aa-001a4af901a5 https://dirros.openscience.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=42872 Univerzitetni klinični center Ljubljana 0 0 0