CRP and cancer: Markers such as C-reactive protein, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), represent a non-specific inflammatory response to tumor hypoxia, tissue injury, and necrosis.[36] The ability of gastric cancers to act aggressively and metastasize is dependent on the intrinsic characteristics of the tumor cells themselves, as well as the cancer microenvironment.[37]