Absolute Lymphocyte Count, Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, and Overall Survival in Eribulin-treated HER2-negative Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

Yoichi Koyama; Saori Kawai; Natsuki Uenaka; Miki Okazaki; Mariko Asaoka; Saeko Teraoka; A I Ueda; Kana Miyahara; Takahiko Kawate; Hiroshi Kaise; Kimito Yamada; Takashi Ishikawa

doi:10.21873/cdp.10058

Absolute Lymphocyte Count, Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, and Overall Survival in Eribulin-treated HER2-negative Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

Cancer Diagn Progn. 2021 Nov 3;1(5):435-441. doi: 10.21873/cdp.10058. eCollection 2021 Nov-Dec.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Breast Oncology and Surgery, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
² Department of Breast Oncology and Surgery, Tokyo Medical University Hachioji Medical Centre, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

Background/aim: To investigate the utility of peripheral blood biomarkers - absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) - for predicting outcomes in eribulin-treated patients with metastatic human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer.

Patients and methods: ALC, NLR, and PLR were retrospectively obtained from pre-treatment blood sampling results of 120 patients and stratified according to means. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to investigate the association of clinicopathological factors, including these values, with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS).

Results: The ALC, NLR, and PLR cut-off points were 1,285/μl, 3.3, and 235, respectively. No biomarkers were associated with PFS. However, univariate analysis showed ALC (p=0.044) and PLR (p=0.044) to be significantly associated with OS.

Conclusion: ALC and PLR can predict eribulin efficacy in terms of OS, reflecting the antitumour immune response in the microenvironment and indicating eribulin's effectiveness.

Keywords: Eribulin; absolute lymphocyte count; metastatic breast cancer; neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; overall survival; platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio; prognosis.