Low platelet to lymphocyte ratio and high platelet distribution width have an inferior outcome in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients

Abstract

Introduction. Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is an incurable disease of the elderly, characterised by gradual accu­mulation of small mature B lymphocytes which escape apoptosis through inflammatory signals from the microenviron­ment. Elevated inflammatory markers are associated with very poor prognosis in different types of cancer. Therefore, we examined retrospectively the impact of platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and platelet distribution width (PDW) on 180 CLL patients’ outcome. Materials and methods. This retrospective study included 180 patients with CLL who were diagnosed and selected among cases referred to the Oncology Center Mansoura University between January 1st, 2008 and June 30th, 2016. All the relevant information was collected from the electronic medical records of the selected patients. Results. Our results revealed that low PLR (<2.5) was more frequently observed in patients with stage C (p < 0.001), with 17p deletion (p = 0.017), and CD38 expression (p = 0.08), but not with seropositive HCV patients (p = 0.2). High PDW (≥18.5 fl) was more frequently associated with intention to treat population (p = 0.038), and CD38 expression (p = 0.068), but not with 17p deletion (p = 0.25) and seropositive HCV patients (p = 0.4). Multivariate analysis for overall survival showed that stage A and low PDW were independent factors for overall survival (p = 0.014 and 0.04 respectively), while high PLR (p = 0.05), and seronegative HCV patients (p = 0.1) lost their significance. Conclusion. Our data showed that low PLR and high PDW were associated with poor prognostic markers. Stage C-CLL and high PDW were independent predictors of survival.