Blood and tumor inflammation markers in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC): Blood leukocytosis as an independent risk factor in early stage.

Abstract

e21110 Background: Cancer inflammation is associated with impaired survival in a range of cancers. We reviewed blood and intratumoral inflammatory markers in NSCLC. Methods: At the Departmentof Thoracic Surgery, Skejby Hospital, Aarhus, Denmark, consecutive patients with resected NSCLC from 2000 to 2008 were reviewed, and 906 patients with complete clinical data were identified. A subset of 341 consecutive patients, resected between 2003 and 2006, also had intratumoral CD66b+ neutrophils and CD163+ macrophages measured by immunohistochemistry and evaluated by stereological assessment. Results: A total of 526, 197, and 183 patients had stage I, II, and III, respectively. Multivariate analysis stratified for tumor stage revealed elevated blood leukocytes above upper limit of normal as a significant prognostic factor for recurrence-free survival (RFS)(hazard ratio [HR] 1.9; 95% CI 1.4-2.6; p<0.0001), cancer specific survival (CSS)(HR 1.9; 95% CI 1.4-2.7; p<0.0001), and overall survival (OS)(HR 1.5; 95% CI 1.1-1.9; p<0.006) in stage I NSCLC, but not in stage II and III. No prognostic impact of intratumoral neutrophils or macrophages was seen on CSS, RFS, or OS, neither in the entire cohort, nor limited to stage I patients with elevated blood leukocytes or with normal counts. Controlling intratumoral neutrophils and macrophages for localization restricted to tumor tissue, stromal tissue, or blood vessels, respectively, were also with no statistically significant difference. Conclusions: Blood leukocytosis is an independent prognostic factor for short recurrence free survival, cancer specific survival, and overall survival in stage I NSCLC, but not in stage II and III. However, intratumoral neutrophils or macrophages did not impact prognosis. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of cancer inflammation in NSCLC.