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The prognostic utility of pre-treatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte-ratio (NLR) in colorectal cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Inflammation is a hallmark of cancer, and systemic markers of inflammation are increasingly recognised as negative prognostic factors for clinical outcome. Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is readily available from routine blood testing of patients diagnosed with cancer.

Methods

Peer-reviewed publications from PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science and EMBASE were identified according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Hazard ratios (HR) for overall survival (OS) and surrogate endpoints (SE; comprising disease-, recurrence- and progression-free survival) were pooled using a random effects model. Additional analysis was carried out to further investigate NLR as an independent prognostic factor and account for heterogeneity.

Results

Seventy-one eligible papers comprising 32,788 patients were identified. High NLR was associated with poor clinical outcomes. Significant publication bias was observed, and larger studies also adjusted for more covariates. Correcting for publication bias in multivariate studies brought our best estimate for true effect size to HR = 1.57 (95% CI 1.39-1.78; p < 0.0001) for OS and to HR = 1.38 (95% CI 1.16-1.64; p = 0.0003) for SE.

Conclusions

NLR is confirmed as an easily available prognostic biomarker in colorectal cancer, despite the limitations of some studies previously reporting this finding. As such, it should be routinely collected in prospective clinical trials. While more standardised and rigorous large-scale studies are needed before high NLR can be fully assessed as an independent predictor of CRC progression and outcome, the data suggest that it may be used to highlight individuals with tumour-promoting inflammatory context.

SUBMITTER: Naszai M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8419761 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:AimNeutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), or monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR) has been shown to be related to the poor prognosis of cervical cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and other malignant tumors, but their role in predicting the prognosis of endometrial cancer is still controversial. Therefore, we conducted this meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of NLR more accurately, PLR, or MLR in predicting the prognosis of endometrial cancer (EC).MethodsThis review systematically searched for relevant publications in databases of the Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, CNKI, WanFang, VIP, and CBM. Pooled hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were determined and used to explore the association between inflammatory biomarkers (NLR, PLR, and MLR) and overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS), and disease-free survival (DFS) in a random-effects model. We also conducted subgroup analysis and publication bias in this meta-analysis. Stata 12.0 was used for statistical analysis.ResultsThis meta-analysis contained 14 eligible studies including 5,274 patients. Our results showed that NLR or PLR was associated with OS [NLR: HR, 2.51; 95% CI, 1.70-3.71; p <0.001 in univariate analysis (Ua); HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.34-2.60; p <0.001 in multivariate analysis (Ma); PLR: HR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.82-3.43; p <0.001 in Ua; HR, 1.86; 95% CI, 1.22-2.83; p = 0.004 in Ma], but MLR was not associated with OS (HR, 1.44; 95% CI, 0.70-2.95; p = 0.325 in Ua; HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.39-2.60; p =0.987 in Ma). A further subgroup analysis found that the correlations were not affected by race, cutoff value, sample size, or treatment. Our meta-analysis showed that NLR or PLR was associated with DFS (NLR: HR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.38-4.56; p =0.003 in Ua; HR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.26-3.37, P =0.004 in Ma; PLR: HR, 1.91; 95% CI, 1.30-2.81; p = 0.001 in Ua), and NLR was associated with PFS only in the univariate analysis (HR, 1.71; 95% CI, 1.04-2.81; p =0.035 in Ua; HR, 1.79; 95% CI, 0.65-4.89; P =0.257 in Ma), but MLR was not associated with DFS (HR, 0.36; 95% CI, 0.03-4.13; p =0.409 in Ua).ConclusionsOur results indicated that pretreatment NLR and PLR were biomarkers of poor prognosis in patients with endometrial cancer. The results indicated that NLR or PLR was associated with OS and disease-free survival DFS, and NLR was associated with PFS only in univariate analysis, but MLR was not associated with OS or DFS.

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