This study aimed to investigate the predictive role of serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on renal mass biopsy outcomes. A total of 71 patients with suspected kidney masses who underwent renal mass biopsy procedure between January 2017 and January 2021 were retrospectively evaluated. Pathological results after the procedure were obtained and pre-procedural serum CRP and NLR levels were extracted from the patients’ data. The patients were grouped into benign and malignant pathology groups according to the histopa-thology results. The parameters were compared between the groups. Diagnostic role of the parameters in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values was also determined. Additionally, Pearson correlation analysis, and univariate and multivariate cox proportional hazard regression analyses were also performed to investigate the above association with tumor diameter and pathology results, respectively. At the end of the analyses, a total of 60 patients had malignant pathology on histopathological investigations of the mass biopsy specimens, whereas the remaining 11 patients had a benign pathological diagnosis. Significantly higher CRP and NLR levels were detected in the malignant pathology group. The parameters positively correlated with the malignant mass diameter, as well. Serum CRP and NLR deter-mined the malignant masses before the biopsy with sensitivity and specificity of 76.6 and 81.8%, and 88.3 and 45.4%, respectively. Moreover, univariate and multivariate analyses showed that serum CRP level had a significant predictive value for malignant pathology (HR: 0.998, 95% CI: 0.940–0.967, P < 0.001 and HR: 0.951, 95% CI: 0.936–0.966, P < 0.001, respectively). In conclusion, serum CRP and NLR levels were significantly different in patients with malignant pathology after renal mass biopsy compared to the patients with benign pathology. Serum CRP level, in particular, diagnosed malignant pathologies with acceptable sensitivity and specificity values. Additionally, it had a substantial predictive role in determining the malign masses prior the biopsy. Therefore, pre-biopsy serum CRP and NLR levels may be used to predict the diagnostic outcomes of renal mass biopsy in clinical practice. Further studies with larger cohorts can prove our findings in the future.
Background/Aim: Several blood and serum-based parameters have been described as prognostic markers of clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC). But most of these markers have inconsistent results and are not used in routine clinical practice. Therefore, novel potential predictor biomarkers are needed for the management of ccRCC patients in clinical practice. Here, we investigate the predictive value of a novel marker, serum C-NLR score, for pathological characteristics and oncological outcomes of ccRCC.
Methods: A total of 162 RCC patients who underwent radical or partial nephrectomy between January 2015 and January 2021 were evaluated in a retrospective cohort study setting. The serum C-NLR score was compared according to the tumor histopathology-associated parameters. The predictive role of those parameters and C-NLR score on the oncological outcomes of ccRCC was also investigated.
Results: The median serum C-NLR scores exhibited statistically significant increases in ccRCC patients with pathological necrosis, lymphovascular invasion, and variant differentiation. Among histopathological characteristics, only tumor necrosis and variant differentiation were associated with overall survival (OS) and tumor grade with metastasis-free survival (MFS) (no metastasis detected in grade 1–2 tumors) in Kaplan Meier analyses. Serum C-NLR score was also associated with OS but not MFS. In the univariate analyses, tumor necrosis, variant differentiation, and C-NLR score were associated with OS of localized RCC patients who underwent nephrectomy (HR: 0.29; 95% CI: 0.08–1.01; P=0.04, HR: 6.01; 95% CI: 1.66–21.82; P=0.006 and, HR: 1.21; 95% CI: 0.20–5.16; P=0.04). However, in the multivariate analysis, only variant differentiation and C-NLR score were associated with OS (HR: 1.43; 95% CI: 0.82–2.98; P=0.03 and HR: 1.21; 95% CI: 0.20–5.16; P=0.04). Tumor grade was directly associated with MFS because grade 1–2 tumors did not exhibit any metastasis.
Conclusion: Serum C-NLR score was higher in worse histopathological entities. Moreover, it predicts the OS for patients with ccRCC as an independent factor.
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