Abstract
Background
Although neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and a high platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) have been reported to be an inverse prognostic predictor of survival in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC), the comparison of their prognostic roles in patients with PC undergoing gemcitabine-based chemotherapy and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) remains unclear.
Methods
This study was designed and performed to determine the predictive role of NLR and PLR in patients diagnosed with PC who underwent one of these two regimens. We retrospectively enrolled 95 patients diagnosed with PC undergoing supportive care, gemcitabine-based chemotherapy or 5-FU therapy from January 2015 to October 2018. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were done to identify clinicopathological predictors of time to treatment failure (TTF) and overall survival (OS), including pretreatment NLR and PLR.
Results
Pretreatment NLR was significantly associated with metastasis. Pretreatment NLR was an independent prognostic predictor of both TTF and OS for patients with PC, with NLR>4.0 predicting worse survival. PLR, however, didn’t independently predict TTF or OS. There were no significant difference in the OS of patients undergoing gemcitabine-based regimens and 5-FU regimens when divided into two subgroups: NLR≤4.0 and >4.0.
Conclusions
Pretreatment NLR is a promising independent outcome predictor for patients with PC. The predictive value of PLR might not be as good as NLR. NLR might not be a suitable factor in the selection of regimens for patients with PC in term of gemcitabine and 5-FU.
Pretreatment Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Predictor of Urologic Tumors
