The prognostic value of before treatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this analysis was to evaluate the prognostic significance of inflammatory biomarkers (NLR, dNLR, PLR and LMR) in NPC patients.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of 111 NPC patients from January 2013 and December 2016. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to determine the cut-off values of these inflammatory biomarkers. Univariate analysis and multivariate Cox regression model were used to evaluate the association between these parameters and progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS).

Results: The optimal critical value of NLR was 2.02, by which cases were divided into high NLR group (NLR ≥ 2.02) and low NLR group (NLR < 2.02). The elevated NLR was significantly associated with decreased OS (P = 0.009) and remained significant in multivariate analysis (HR 8.48, 95% CI 1.69-42.46, P = 0.009).

Conclusions: The before treatment NLR may be an independent prognostic biomarker for OS in patients with NPC. NLR, dNLR and PLR might be a useful complement to TNM staging in the prognosis evaluation of NPC patients.

Keywords: Inflammatory biomarkers; NLR; Nasopharyngeal carcinoma; Overall survival (OS); Prognosis; Progression-free survival (PFS).