BackgroundThe neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reportedly associated with prognosis in cancer patients by influencing both cancer progression and chemosensitivity. However, the correlation between NLR and the outcome of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in breast cancer patients remains unclear.MethodsNLR was evaluated in 177 patients with breast cancer treated with NAC with 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide, followed by weekly paclitaxel and subsequent curative surgery. The correlation between NLR and prognosis, including the efficacy of NAC, was evaluated retrospectively.Results NLR ranged from 0.5 to 10.6. Fifty-eight patients with low NLR (<3.0) had a higher pathological complete response (pCR) rate (p < 0.001) and were more frequently diagnosed with ER-negative/progesterone receptor (PR)-negative/HER2-negative (triple-negative) breast cancer (TNBC; p < 0.001) compared with patients with high NLR (≥3.0). Among TNBC patients who achieved pCR, disease-free survival (p = 0.006) and overall survival (p < 0.001) were significantly longer in patients with low NLR than in those with high NLR. Low NLR was associated with a significantly favorable prognosis in TNBC patients who achieved pCR, according to univariate analysis (p = 0.044, hazard ratio = 0.06).ConclusionsLow NLR may indicate high efficacy and favorable outcome after NAC in patients with TNBC.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1245/s10434-015-4934-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

pCR).Results: A total of 177 patients were included, of whom 90 had a high CFR and 87 a low CFR. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) was more common in the high-CFR group than in the low-CFR group (46 versus 23 per cent; P = 0⋅002), as was HER2-enriched breast cancer (HER2BC) (27 versus 14 per cent; P = 0⋅033). Among these patients, the pCR rate was significantly higher in the high-CFR group than in the low-CFR group (TNBC: P = 0⋅022; HER2BC: P < 0⋅001). In multivariable analysis high-CFR status was an independent predictor of a favourable prognosis: hazard ratio 0⋅24 (95 per cent c.i. 0⋅05 to 0⋅72; P = 0⋅015) for TNBC and 0⋅10 (0⋅10 to 0⋅90; P = 0⋅041) for HER2BC. Conclusion:The CFR may be a useful biomarker to predict treatment response to neoadjuvant therapy in aggressive breast cancer subtypes, such as TNBC and HER2BC.

BackgroundThe lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) has been used as a parameter reflecting systemic inflammation in several tumors, and is reportedly associated with prognosis in cancer patients. In this study, we evaluated the predictive value of LMR for progression and chemosensitivity in breast cancer patients treated with preoperative chemotherapy.MethodsLMR was evaluated in 239 patients with breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) with 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide, followed by weekly paclitaxel with or without trastuzumab, and subsequent curative surgery. The correlations between LMR and clinicopathological features, prognosis, and pathological complete response (pCR) rate of NAC were evaluated retrospectively. We also evaluated the predictive value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and compared the predictive values of LMR and NLR.ResultsWe set 6.00 as the cut-off level for LMR based on the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. A total of 119 patients (49.8%) were classified in the high-LMR group and 120 (50.2%) were classified in the low-LMR group. The low-LMR group had significantly worse disease-free survival rate (DFS) in all patients (p = 0.005) and in triple-negative breast cancer patients (p = 0.006). However, there was no significant correlation between LMR and pCR. Multivariate analysis showed that low LMR was an independent risk factor for DFS (p = 0.008, hazard ratio = 2.245). However, there was no significant difference in DFS (p = 0.143, log-rank) between patients in the low- and high-NLR groups.ConclusionsLMR may be a useful prognostic marker in patients with breast cancer.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-5051-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundThe peripheral blood platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) has been proposed as an indicator for evaluating systemic inflammatory responses in cancer-bearing patients. While some reports suggest a correlation between PLR and prognosis, few studies have examined the relationship between PLR and sensitivity to chemotherapy. We conducted a study on whether PLR could serve as a predictor of the therapeutic effects of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).MethodsPLR was evaluated in 177 breast cancer patients treated with the NAC 5-fluorouracil, epirubicin and cyclophosphamide, followed by weekly paclitaxel and subsequent curative surgery. The correlation between PLR and prognosis, and between PLR and the efficacy of NAC, were evaluated retrospectively.ResultsThe low PLR group had significantly more patients > 56 years old (p = 0.001) and postmenopausal women (p = 0.001) than the high PLR group. The low PLR group also had a higher pathologic complete response (pCR) rate (p = 0.019). On examining the correlation with prognosis, the low-PLR group was found to have significantly longer disease-free survival (p = 0.004) and overall survival (p = 0.032) than the high PLR group. Multivariate analysis also revealed that lymph node metastasis (p = 0.043, hazard ratio = 4.40) and a high PLR (p = 0.005, hazard ratio = 2.84) were independent, unfavorable prognostic factors.ConclusionsFor patients with breast cancer treated with NAC, a low PLR indicated high chemotherapy sensitivity, suggesting that PLR could serve as a predictive marker of the therapeutic effect of NAC.

Background:Myofibroblasts in the cancer microenvironment have recently been implicated in tumour growth and metastasis of gastric cancer. However, the mechanisms responsible for the regulation of myofibroblasts in cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) remain unclear. This study was performed to clarify the mechanisms for regulation of myofibroblasts in gastric cancer microenvironment.Methods:Two CAFs (CaF-29 and CaF-33) from the tumoural gastric wall and a normal fibroblast (NF-29) from the nontumoural gastric wall, 4 human gastric cancer cell lines from scirrhous gastric cancer (OCUM-2MD3 and OCUM-12), and non-scirrhous gastric cancer (MKN-45 and MKN-74) were used. Immunofluorescence microscopy by triple-immunofluorescence labelling (α-SMA, vimentin, and DAPI) was performed to determine the presence of α-SMA-positive myofibroblasts. Real-time RT–PCR was performed to examine α-SMA mRNA expression.Results:Immunofluorescence microscopy showed that the frequency of myofibroblasts in CaF-29 was greater than that in NF-29. The number of myofibroblasts in gastric fibroblasts gradually decreased with serial passages. Transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) significantly increased the α-SMA expression level of CAFs. Conditioned medium from OCUM-2MD3 or OCUM-12 cells upregulated the α-SMA expression level of CAFs, but that from MKN-45 or MKN-74 cells did not. The α-SMA upregulation effect of conditioned medium from OCUM-2MD3 or OCUM-12 cells was significantly decreased by an anti-TGF-β antibody or Smad2 siRNA.Conclusion:Transforming growth factor-β from scirrhous gastric carcinoma cells upregulates the number of myofibroblasts in CAFs.