Pretreatment hematologic markers as prognostic factors in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-lymphocyte ratio.

Background: Pretreatment hematological markers of inflammatory response have emerged as prognostic factors for patients with cancer. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic significance of various hematologic parameters in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: Clinical data from 251 patients with NPC were retrospectively collected. Neutrophil counts, lymphocyte counts, platelet counts, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were adopted as potential prognostic biomarkers. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were adopted to calculate and compare the progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) rates. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to carry out univariate and multivariate analyses.

Results: NLR ≥2.7 (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.01; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.23-3.29; p = .005) and PLR ≥167.2 (HR = 2.12; 95% CI = 1.35-3.33; p = .001) were significantly associated with shorter PFS, whereas PLR ≥163.4 (HR = 2.64; 95% CI = 1.25-5.60; p = .011) was correlated with poor OS.

Conclusion: Pretreatment NLR and PLR can be independent prognostic factors for patients with NPC. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Head Neck 38: E1332-E1340, 2016.