Prognostic role of pre-treatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients with soft tissue sarcoma.
e23537 Background: Recent studies suggest that the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be associated with prognosis in several cancers. However, it has not been widely accepted in a clinical situation. In this study, we investigated the clinical significance of NLR as prognostic marker in patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Methods: Between January 2008 to December 2018, 168 patients with STS who had available blood counts at the time of diagnosis were retrospectively evaluated. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to identify the optimal cut-off value for NLR in predicting overall survival. The association between NLR and overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed with Kaplan-meier method and multivariate Cox proportional models. Results: A total of 168 patients were analyzed, 116 (69.0%) patients were initially resectable disease. Based on the results of ROC curve analysis, patients were classified into two groups as; high-NLR ( > 1.8) and low-NLR (≤1.8). High-NLR was presented in 107 (63.7%) patients which was significantly associated initial disease status (HR 3.30; 95% CI 1.51-7.20, p= 0.002), but not with age at diagnosis ( p= 0.167). High-NLR was significantly correlated with worse OS (HR 3.14; 95% CI 1.62-6.10, p < 0.001). 3-year DFS was 26.2% for high-NLR group versus 37.3% for low-NLR group. DFS tended to be better in low-NLR group, though not statistically significant (HR 1.65; 95% CI 0.95-2.87, p= 0.078). Conclusions: Pre-treatment NLR is a useful predictive factor for prognosis in patients with soft tissue sarcoma. Further studies are needed to evaluate the association between factors representing of host inflammatory status and cancer prognosis.