Pretreatment blood neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio is associated with metastasis and predicts survival in patients with pancreatic cancer.

Background: The predictive value of systemic inflammatory markers has been explored in various types of cancer. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the association between pretreatment neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and tumor metastasis in pancreatic cancer, and the values of NLR as a prognostic factor of overall survival.
Methods: Clinical and laboratory data from 256 consecutive pancreatic cancer patients were analyzed retrospectively. The NLR was recorded before treatment and analyzed along with clinicopathological characteristics and overall survival of pancreatic cancer patients.
Results: Multivariate analysis revealed that pretreatment NLR (HR: 2.393; 95% CI: 1.326-4.320; P=0.004) was an independent risk factor for distant metastasis. Furthermore, COX regression analysis showed that in addition to pretreatment NLR (HR: 1.871; 95% CI: 1.413-2.477; P<0.001), metastasis and stage were independent prognostic factors.
Conclusion: Pretreatment NLR values were significantly associated with distant metastasis in pancreatic cancer patients. Higher NLR values were detected in metastatic disease and may be an independent prognostic factor of overall survival in pancreatic cancer patients.
(Copyright © 2017 Société Française du Cancer. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)