Role of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as an independent prognostic factor in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients: A prospective study in a tertiary care center
<p><strong>Background:</strong> More recently, established systemic inflammation-based prognostic scores have been explored extensively, such as neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and serum C-reactive protein. We postulated that NLR might be a readily available and inexpensive objective prognostic index that could be used in daily oncologic clinical practice and could help to stratify patients in clinical trials.<br /><strong>Materials and Methods:</strong> In total, there were 150 patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) treated at GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, between October 2012 and January 2015 whose clinical information and laboratory parameters were obtained. The NLR was determined by dividing the absolute neutrophil count by the absolute lymphocyte count, and the NLR data were then dichotomized and divided into two groups as NLR low and high. <strong>Conclusion:</strong> Our findings reported herein demonstrated that pretreatment NLR is a potential biomarker for predicting the overall survival in OSCC patients. Combined with other markers, NLR may be used in decision-making and the selection of treatment modality in patients with oral SCC.</p>