Blood cell parameters as prognostic predictors of disease development for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Leirong Wang; Hongzong Si; Jing Wang; Lingxin Feng; Wenxin Zhai; Shenghua Dong; Zhuang Yu

doi:10.3892/ol.2020.11655

Blood cell parameters as prognostic predictors of disease development for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Oncol Lett. 2020 Aug;20(2):1101-1110. doi: 10.3892/ol.2020.11655. Epub 2020 May 21.

Authors

Leirong Wang¹, Hongzong Si², Jing Wang¹, Lingxin Feng¹, Wenxin Zhai¹, Shenghua Dong¹, Zhuang Yu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Oncology, The Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266003, P.R. China.
² Institute for Computational Science and Engineering, Laboratory of New Fibrous Materials and Modern Textile, The Growing Base for State Key Laboratory, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong 266071, P.R. China.

Abstract

Although the prognostic value of the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and lymphocyte/white blood cell ratio (LWR) has been described in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the association between complete blood cell parameters prior to disease treatment and NSCLC have yet to be identified. The aim of the present study was to assess the complete blood cell parameters prior to disease treatment in patients with advanced NSCLC. A total of 268 patients with advanced NSCLC were enrolled in this study. Clinical and laboratory data of the patients were acquired through medical records. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to determine the optimal cut-off values of the neutrophil/white blood cell ratio (NWR), NLR, platelet/white blood cell ratio (PWR), PLR, monocyte/white blood cell ratio (MWR), monocyte/lymphocyte ratio (MLR) and LWR. Kaplan-Meier univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to evaluate the effect of complete blood parameters on progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The optimal cut-off values were identified as 0.67 for NWR, 2.85 for NLR, 37.23 for PWR, 166.56 for PLR, 0.074 for MWR, 0.31 for MLR and 0.24 for LWR. Univariate analysis revealed that sex (P=0.038), histological type (P<0.0001), NWR (P=0.026), NLR (P=0.044) and MLR (P=0.012) were all associated with PFS, whereas histological type (P=0.003), NWR (P=0.003), NLR (P=0.015), MLR (P=0.006) and LWR (P=0.043) were significantly associated with OS in patients with advanced NSCLC. Histological type (P=0.002) was an independent prognostic factor for PFS in patients with advanced NSCLC. Whereas histological type (P=0.005), NWR (P=0.005), NLR (P=0.014), MLR (P=0.006), and LWR (P=0.034) were independent prognostic factors for OS. Taken together, the present study identified high NWR, NLR and MLR, and low LWR as independent prognostic factors for poor OS in patients with NSCLC.

Keywords: complete blood cell parameters; non-small cell lung cancer; overall survival; prognostic factors; progression-free survival.