The present study was aim to investigate the prognostic role of platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for patients with gastric cancer (GC) using meta-analysis. A total of 13 studies (14 cohorts) with 6,280 subjects were included. By pooling hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs from each study, we found that elevated PLR was significantly associated with poorer overall survival (OS) (HR: 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1-1.52, p = 0.001; Ι² = 68.5%, Ph < 0.001) but not with poor disease-free survival (DFS) (HR: 1.6, 95% CI: 0.88-2.9, p = 0.122; I2 = 87.8%, Ph < 0.001). Subgroup analysis showed that a high PLR significantly predicted poor OS in Caucasian populations, patients receiving chemotherapy and patients at advanced stage. In addition, the cut-off value of PLR > 160 showed adequately prognostic value. Furthermore, elevated PLR was associated with lymph node metastasis and CEA levels in GC. Our meta-analysis showed that elevated PLR could be a significant prognostic biomarker for poor OS in patients with GC.
Keywords: PLR; biomarker; gastric cancer; meta-analysis; prognosis.