Influence of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio on radiosensitivity and prognosis in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Objective To investigate the influence of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on radiosensitivity and prognosis, the relationship between NLR and clinical features, and the clinical value of NLR in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods 2006 to 2011 in the cancer center of Zhongshan University admitted to the newly diagnosed nasopharyngeal cancer patients in 266 cases. The association of pretreatment NLR with radiotherapy doses 20, 40, and 60 Gy and therapeutic effect at 3 months after radiotherapy was analyzed, as well as the influence of NLR on overall survival (OS), local recurrence-free (LRF), and distant metastasis-free (DMF) rates. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate survival rates and the log-rank test was used for survival difference analysis. Results NLR showed differences across patients with different T stages and sexes (P=0.039, 0.032). The patients with NLR≤3 had significantly higher OS, LRF, and DMF rates compared with those with NLR>3(P=0.004, 0.025, 0.045). As NLR increased, the radiosensitivity in patients with NPC was reduced gradually, and radiosensitivity showed a significant difference between sensitive group and moderately sensitive group (P=0.043). When the radiotherapy dose was 40 Gy, the tumor regression group had a lower NLR than the residual tumor group (P=0.025). Conclusions In patients with NPC, an increased pretreatment NLR is an adverse prognostic factor, and NLR can be used as a simple and convenient method to evaluate the prognosis of patients with NPC. Key words: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio; Nnasopharyngeal neoplasms; Radiosensitivity; Prognosis