Investigation of the Relationship between Markers of Systemic Inflammatory Response and Head and Neck Tumor Characteristics

Abstract

BackgroundMarkers of systemic inflammation have been hypothesized to reflect the underlying tumor microenvironment, and have recently been shown to be associated with advanced tumor grade, T and N stages.Aims/ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the relationship between head and neck cancer (HNC) tumor characteristics and routine pretreatment inflammatory markers: the platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and the lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR).Materials and MethodsThis is a retrospective cohort study. The tumor characteristics collected were tumor differentiation, T stage, N stage. The relationship between the inflammatory markers and tumor characteristics was analyzed.ResultsA total of 122 patients were enrolled from 2010-2016. An elevated PLR was found to be significantly associated with advanced T stage (rho=0.191, p=0.00347), and N stage (ANOVA, p=0.005). None of the other inflammatory markers (NLR, LMR) were associated with T stage or N stage. No markers were associated with tumor differentiation.Conclusion and significanceWe found that an PLR is significantly associated with advanced tumor and nodal stage. We were unable to find any tumor associations with the other inflammatory markers (NLR, LMR).

Evaluation of the prognostic utility of the combination of platelet count with mean platelet volume as a prognostic indicator in head and neck cancer

“…This is a retrospective cohort study that included consecutively-treated patients with HNC treated at the New York Head & Neck Institute (NYHNI) from 2009-2016. This study is part of a large retrospectively managed cancer database (15,16) and was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Northwell Health System (IRB# 17-0280-LHH). The study conforms to the guidelines stupilated in the Declaration of Helsinki.…”