With growing evidence on the role of inflammation in carcinogenesis, the presence of a systemic inflammatory response has been proposed as having prognostic significance in a wide range of cancers. The aim of the study was to assess the value of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in predicting disease-specific survival (DSS) in patients with oral cancer undergoing preoperative chemoradiotherapy. A cohort of 97 patients with locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma receiving preoperative chemoradiotherapy was retrospectively examined. The impact of NLR and other potential prognostic factors on DSS was assessed with the Kaplan-Meier method and multivariate Cox regression analysis. Sixty-nine patients had a high pretreatment NLR, with NLR > 1.9 considered as high according to receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. In univariate analysis, high pretreatment NLR (p = 0.018), positive perineural invasion (p < 0.001) and advanced pathologic TNM stage after neoadjuvant therapy (p < 0.001) were predictive of shorter DSS. In multivariate analysis, advanced pathologic TNM stage after neoadjuvant therapy (HR 1.71, 95 % CI 1.17-2.48, p = 0.005), positive perineural invasion (HR 3.67, 95 % CI 1.11-12.13, p = 0.033) and high pretreatment NLR (HR 10.37, 95 % CI 1.28-84.08, p = 0.029) remained independently associated with poor DSS. A high pretreatment NLR is a significant independent predictor of shorter DSS in patients with oral cancer receiving preoperative chemoradiotherapy.

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Much research has been done on bone cells, but only a few studies deal with biomaterial-induced effects on human osteoclasts, which may take on an important role in the successful regeneration of bone. In order to highlight such effects, human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were extracted from venous blood, differentiated to osteoclasts and then cultured in, the presence of five particulate hydroxyapatite (HA)/β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) biomaterials, on bovine bone slices and glass cover slips. The biomaterials, AlgOSS 50/50 (50 % HA/50 % TCP), AlgOSS 20/80 (20 % HA/80 % TCP), Algipore (98 % HA), Cerasorb (100 % TCP) and Bio-Oss (100 % HA) were chosen to assess their influence on cell morphology and numbers. Light microscopic evaluation was performed during ongoing cell culture. After 21 d of cultivation, the biomaterial-induced effects on osteoclastic resorption of the bone slices were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Osteoclast-like cells were identified by TRAP staining. All five biomaterials showed larger area fractions of resorbed bone than the control (5.6 ± 6.8 %), as measured on SEM images. The purely hydroxyapatite-based Algipore (9.8 ± 9.7 %) and Bio-Oss (7.9 ± 8.8 %) showed significantly elevated area fraction rates (p ≤ 0.05) of bone resorption. Light Microscope evaluation revealed a significant, but inhibiting effect of Cerasorb (p = 0.05). These data indicated that introducing of small biomaterial hydroxyapatite particles may have improved the performance of bone substitute materials.

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