A high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as a potential marker of mortality in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma: A retrospective study.

Background: The prognostic relevance of a high blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reported in many cancers, although, to our knowledge, not investigated in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) to date.

Objective: We assessed whether the NLR at baseline was associated with specific survival and recurrence-free survival in MCC.

Methods: We retrospectively included MCC cases between 1999 and 2015 and collected clinical data, blood cell count at baseline, and outcome. A Cox model was used to identify factors associated with recurrence and death from MCC.

Results: Among the 75 patients included in the study, a high NLR at baseline (NLR ≥4) was associated with death from MCC in univariate (hazard ratio 2.76, 95% confidence interval 1.15-6.62, P = .023) and multivariate (hazard ratio 3.30, 95% confidence interval 1.21-9.01, P = .020) analysis, but not with recurrence.

Limitations: Because of the retrospective design, we excluded patients with missing data and not all confounding factors that may influence the NLR were available.

Conclusion: A high NLR at baseline was independently associated with specific mortality in patients with MCC. The NLR seems to constitute an easily available and inexpensive prognostic biomarker at baseline.