Prognostic role of pretreatment neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in breast cancer patients: A meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Inflammation and cancer are closely related to each other. As a parameter that can reflect inflammation and host immune reaction, elevated blood neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been confirmed to be correlated with poor prognosis in a variety of cancers. However, this remains controversial in breast cancer. Thus, we performed this updated meta-analysis to further clarify whether high NLR could be a predictor of survival in breast cancer patients.

Methods

We searched on PubMed Database and Cochrane Library. Overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and cancer-specific survival were used as outcome events, and hazard ratio (HR) was chosen as the parameter to evaluate the correlation.

Result

Eighteen eligible studies were involved in this meta-analysis. The synthesized analysis demonstrated that elevated NLR was associated with poor DFS [HR?=?1.72, 95% confidence interval (95% CI)?=?1.30-2.27], OS (HR?=?1.87, 95% CI?=?1.41-2.48), and cancer-specific survival (HR?=?2.09, 95% CI?=?1.04-4.21). The correlation was stronger in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) (OS: HR?=?2.58, 95% CI?=?1.63-4.06; DFS: HR?=?3.51, 95% CI?=?1.97-6.24).

Conclusion

Higher NLR was correlated to poor prognosis of breast cancer patients. As a clinical parameter that we can easily obtain, NLR might be a potential predictor in patients' survival to assist with physicians' treatment decisions.

SUBMITTER: Liu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5690700 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature