The evaluation of pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients with laryngeal neoplasms
Abstract Introduction: Systemic inflammatory biomarkers are promising predictive and prognostic factors for solid cancers. The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio are used to predict inflammation and used as biomarker in several malignancies. Objective: The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the diagnostic, predictive and prognostic role of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients with laryngeal neoplasms. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted on medical records involving 229 patients with benign, premalignant and malignant laryngeal neoplasms between 2002 and 2015. The diagnostic, predictive and prognostic role of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio were evaluated using uni- and multivariate analysis. Results: The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio were not statistically different between patients with benign, premalignant and malignant laryngeal neoplasms. Both neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio were predictive factors for stage, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastasis. Patients with high neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio value (≥4) had a poor prognosis when compared with patients with low neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio value (5 year, Overall Survival: 69.0% vs. 31.1%, p < 0.001; 5 year, disease free survival: 70.0% vs. 32.7%, p ˂ 0.001; 5 year, locoregional recurrence free survival: 69.7% vs. 32.0%, p < 0.001). Furthermore, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio was an independent prognostic factor for 5 year: Overall survival (HR = 2.396; 95% CI 1.408-4.077; p = 0.001), Disease free survival (HR = 2.246; 95% CI 1.322-3.816; p = 0.006) and locoregional recurrence free survival (HR = 2.210; 95% CI 1.301-3.753; p = 0.003). Conclusion: Pretreatment neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio is a useful and reliable predictive and prognostic biomarker for patients with laryngeal carcinoma.
