Purpose: The advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI) is a useful tool for prediction of outcome in several malignancies. However, to date, its significance in head and neck cancer patients has not been evaluated.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from 93 patients who were diagnosed with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and treated with surgical resection and postoperative radiotherapy between 2002 and 2012. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the preoperative ALI is a prognostic indicator for disease-free survival and overall survival in HNSCC patients.
Results: A low ALI was significantly associated with a worse 5-year disease-free survival (47.0 vs. 83.5%, p < 0.001), and overall survival (44.4 vs. 73.6%, p = 0.008). Multivariate analysis showed that low ALI was independently associated with disease-free survival (p < 0.001) and overall survival (p = 0.02).
Conclusion: The ALI could serve as an easily available prognostic indicator for disease-free and overall survival prediction in patients with HNSCC.
Keywords: Advanced lung cancer inflammation index; Disease-free survival; Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; Overall survival; Precision medicine; Recurrence risk.