Elevated preoperative peripheral blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio to predict clinical outcome in patients with localized soft tissue sarcoma.

Abstract

11049 Background: Recent studies suggest that markers of systemic inflammation such as blood neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be prognostic for various cancers, though its clinical utility has not been widely accepted. This study aims to investigate its clinical relevance in patients (pts) with soft tissue sarcoma (STS). Methods: Five hundred and twenty-nine pts with localized STS who had available pre-operative blood counts at the time of diagnosis were retrospectively examined. An optimal cutoff for high NLR ( > 2.5) in predicting overall survival (OS) and relapse-free survival (RFS) in pts who underwent curative surgery (n = 473) was determined using receiver operating curve analyses. Cutoffs for platelet-lymphocyte ratios (PLR, > 180) and lymphocyte-monocyte ratios (LMR, < 3.6) were similarly obtained. Survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan-Meier method and multivariate Cox proportional models. Median follow-up was 40 months. Results: A high NLR was present in 311 (58.8%) pts, which was significantly associated with tumor grade ( p< 0.0001), depth ( p= 0.003) and size > 5 cm ( p= 0.0242), but not with age at diagnosis, sex or ethnicity. High NLR was associated with both worse OS (HR 1.78; 95%CI 1.28-2.47; p= 0.0005) and RFS (HR 1.54; 95%CI 1.17-2.03; p= 0.0019), as were age at diagnosis, tumor grade, size, PLR and LMR. In multivariate models adjusted for clinicopathological predictors of survival, only NLR, in addition to tumor grade and size, were independently associated with worse OS (HR 1.52; 95%CI 1.09-2.11; p= 0.0131) and RFS (HR 1.42; 95%CI 1.08-1.85; p= 0.0114). Analysis of survival according to American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stages subdivided as NLR-high and NLR-low revealed a significant worse prognosis for NLR-high subgroups ( p< 0.0001), with a 2.2-fold and 1.5-fold higher risk of death within stages II (HR 2.20; 95%CI 1.20-4.01; p= 0.0103) and III (HR 1.55; 95%CI 1.01-2.37; p= 0.0459), respectively. Conclusions: High NLR is an independent marker of poor prognosis among pts with localized STS. Inclusion of NLR as a classifier into the AJCC staging of STS may improve estimation of survival.