Prognostic Significance of Preoperative Circulating Monocyte Count in Patients With Breast Cancer

Abstract

Growing evidence showed that inflammation response plays an important role in cancer development and progression, and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), absolute monocyte count (AMC), and lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) have been used as parameters of systemic inflammation in several tumors. In this study, we evaluated the prognostic significance of preoperative ALC, AMC and LMR in breast cancer and 2000 patients between January 2002 and December 2008 at Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center were enrolled. Patients were grouped by the cut-off value according to the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed that patients with elevated AMC levels (>0.48 × 109/L) had shorter overall survival (OS, P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, preoperative AMC was identified as an independent prognostic parameter for OS in breast cancer patients (hazard ratio = 1.374, 95% confidence interval: 1.045–1.807). Subgroup analyses revealed that AMC was an unfavorable prognostic factor in stage II–III breast cancer patients and Luminal B, human epithelial growth factor receptor-2 overexpressing subtype, and triple-negative breast cancer (all P < 0.05). Additionally, the prognostic value of ALC and LMR could not be proven in the current study. Preoperative AMC may serve as an easily available and low-priced parameter to predict the outcomes of breast cancer.

Associations between elevated pre‐treatment serum cytokines and peripheral blood cellular markers of immunosuppression in patients with lymphoma

“…Furthermore, these prognostic implications were independent of the type of lymphoma again pointing towards mechanisms in the tumor environment and host immune response. This is consistent with several observations in patients with solid tumors, which revealed very similar prognostic implications of ALC and AMC in breast, gastric, pancreatic, nasopharyngeal, and non‐small cell lung cancer …”

Use of the combination of the preoperative platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and tumor characteristics to predict peritoneal metastasis in patients with gastric cancer

“…Furthermore, the preoperative circulating monocyte level has also been identified as an independent risk factor for breast cancer-related death. Research has also reported that tumor-infiltrating T cells have the potential to stimulate monocyte to produce matrix metalloproteinase-2, matrix metalloproteinase-9, and vascular endothelial growth factor, which have significant roles in angiogenesis, invasion, and metastasis[33]. In contrast to the aforementioned systemic inflammatory response markers, lymphocytes are a major antitumor factor[34].…”

Pre-treatment serum alkaline phosphatase and lactate dehydrogenase as prognostic factors in triple negative breast cancer

“…In recent years, some studies have demonstrated the prognostic value of blood parameters and serum parameters, which are inexpensive, accurate, identified by easy method of detection and validated. Although underlying mechanism is unclear, increased pretreatment blood parameters and serum parameters have been confirmed to associate with prognosis of several cancers, such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR)17, 18, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), monocyte count19, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR)20, fibrinogen21 haptoglobin 22and C-reactive protein23. The serum levels of ALP and LDH are routine diagnostic tests in clinical laboratories.…”