Published in:
01-10-2012 | Original Article
Can neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predict the survival of colorectal cancer patients who have received curative surgery electively?
Published in: International Journal of Colorectal Disease | Issue 10/2012
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Purpose
We evaluated the effect of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on disease-free survival in patients with stages I to III colorectal cancer (CRC).
Methods
There were 3857 patients identified from our database. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to identify the best cutoff value of NLR. A 5-year disease-free survival was used as end point. Survival analysis was used to assess the NLR effect, after stratification by several clinopathologic factors.
Results
In the ROC analysis, NLR = 3 had the highest sensitivity and specificity. Elevated NLR (>3) in colon cancer seemed to accompany larger tumor size (≧5 cm) and more advanced T stage. By multivariate analysis, elevated NLR in colon cancer was associated with an increased risk of disease progression or cancer death [hazard ratio (HR) 1.377, 95 % confidence interval 1.104–1.717, P = 0.014]. However, elevated NLR in rectal cancer lost its significance in multivariate analysis (HR 1.121, 95 % confidence interval 0.941–1.336, P = 0.200). Patients with elevated NLR had worse outcome, especially for colon cancer.
Conclusions
Preoperative NLR influenced the disease-free survival in patients with stages I to III CRC. Elevated NLR (>3) was associated with worse outcome (5-year disease-free survival 66.3 % vs. 78.9 % in colon cancer, P < 0.001; 60. 5 % vs. 66.2 % in rectal cancer, P = 0.008). The difference was larger in colon cancer than in rectal cancer. NLR should be considered as a prognostic factor for stages I to III CRC patients after curative surgery.