The New Perspectives Journal of Medicine

Abstract

Lymphocytes play a key anticancer role. However, there is little information concerning the prognostic utility of the lymphocyte-to-white-blood-cell ratio (LWR) for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after liver resection. Data on patients with HCC who underwent liver resection at 5 centers were retrospectively reviewed. The software X-Tile was used to determine the optimal cutoff values for models of inflammation. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify the independent risk factors for both recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the independent risk factors for RFS and OS. Subjects were a total of 1,591 patients. Multivariate analyses revealed that the LWR was an independent risk factor for both RFS (HR=1.190, 95% CI=1.037-1.365, P=0.013) and OS (HR=1.300, 95% CI=1.098-1.539, P=0.002) for patients with HCC after liver resection. The LWR displayed a greater ability to predict both RFS and OS in patients with HCC after tumor resection than other models of inflammation. The 5-year RFS and OS were 42.9% and 60.8%, respectively, for patients with HCC and a high LWR, and those rates were significantly higher than rates in patients with a low LWR (RFS of 36.9% and OS of 49.0%, P<0.001 for both). In conclusion, preoperative LWR may serve as a novel marker to predict the survival of patients with HCC after liver resection. A low LWR was associated with a high incidence of postoperative recurrence and mortality.