PURPOSE:An increase in the pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio is associated with poor prognosis for various cancers, including renal cell carcinoma.
However, the clinical implication of a posttreatment change in the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients with cancer remains unclear.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We reviewed the records of 250 patients with nonmetastatic clear cell renal cell carcinoma and analyzed associations among clinicopathological variables, the preoperative and postoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and recurrence-free survival.
RESULTS: The 10-year recurrence-free survival rate for patients with a preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of 2.7 or greater was significantly lower than that for those with a ratio of less than 2.7 (64.4% vs 83.7%, p = 0.0004). When combined with the postoperative ratio, patients with a preoperative ratio of 2.7 or greater could be further divided into 2 groups with a significantly different prognosis. The 10-year recurrence-free survival rate for patients with a preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio of 2.7 or greater and postoperative ratio of less than 2.7 was significantly lower than that for those with a preoperative and postoperative ratio of 2.7 or greater (52.0% vs 83.5%, p = 0.0487). The latter was similar to the 83.7% for patients with a preoperative ratio of less than 2.7. In patients with recurrence the ratio at recurrence was significantly increased compared with the postoperative ratio (mean ± SD 2.82 ± 1.63 vs 2.00 ± 0.90, p = 0.0090). Multivariate analysis showed that tumor size, pathological tumor stage and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio change (a combination of the preoperative and postoperative ratios) were independent predictors of recurrence. Using these 3 significant variables patients were stratified into low, intermediate and high risk groups, among which the recurrence-free survival rate significantly differed.
CONCLUSIONS: The posttreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio change was a significant prognostic factor for recurrence as well as tumor size and pathological tumor stage in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
Written by:
Ohno Y, Nakashima J, Ohori M, Gondo T, Hatano T, Tachibana M. Are you the author?
Department of Urology, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan.
Reference: J Urol. 2012 Feb;187(2):411-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.juro.2011.10.026
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 22177153
