Aim: Systemic inflammatory response affects survival of gastric cancer (GC) patients. This study was carried out to create a prognostic inflammatory-based score to predict survival in metastatic GC (mGC) before first-line chemotherapy.
Materials & methods: We studied the prognostic value of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio in 151 patients with mGC at the diagnosis.
Results: Median overall survival (OS) was significantly lower in patients with high NLR. Performance status 1-2 according to the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scale and NLR were predictors of shorter OS at multivariate analysis. Based on these results, we defined a prognostic OS score, showing a better median OS in favorable risk group.
Conclusion: Elevated pretreatment NLR and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group are independent predictors of shorter OS in mGC patients before first-line chemotherapy.
Keywords: metastatic gastric cancer; neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio; platelet–lymphocyte ratio.