['To investigate the clinical significance of the serum inflammatory cytokines and the blood granulocytes/lymphocytes (G/L) ratio in patients with colorectal cancer.', 'Forty-six patients underwent surgery for colorectal cancer. The G/L ratio and serum inflammatory cytokines including interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-8, tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF) were measured before surgery and correlated with the Tumour Node Metastasis classification and overall survival.', 'Serum IL-6 in T3-4, N1-2, M1 cases and cancer stages III-IV sub-groups was significantly higher than in Tis-2, N0, M0 and cancer stages 0-II sub-groups. The G/L ratio, serum M-CSF and TNF-α in T3-4 cases were significantly higher than in Tis-2 cases. Furthermore, the G/L ratio and serum IL-6 showed a significant inverse correlation with the overall survival, while the G/L ratio showed a significant positive correlation with serum IL-6, TNF-α and M-CSF. Multivariate analysis showed that the serum IL-6 level and G/L ratio were independent risk factors for poor prognosis.'] Are in patients with colorectal cancer , preoperative serum interleukin-6 level and granulocyte/lymphocyte ratio clinically relevant biomarkers of long-term cancer progression?