Persistently High Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio after Surgery Indicate Poor Prognosis in Non-small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: The previous study of ours showed the prognostic impact of preoperative neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.Methods: In the present study, the relationship between postoperative NLR and patients' prognosis was examined in NSCLC patients with preoperative high NLR. Consecutive 85 resected NSCLC patients with preoperative high NLR (≥2.5) were reviewed retrospectively. In this study, patients with a follow-up period less than 5 years were omitted.Results: Among these 85 patients, the postoperative NLR in 46 patients were persistently higher than 2.5. The 5-year survival of the patients with postoperative NLR≥2.5 was significantly worse than that of the patients with postoperative NLR<2.5 (34.78% vs. 61.54%, p=0.0067). Univariate and multivariate analyses of the clinicopathological factors affecting survival revealed that postoperative high NLR was an independent prognostic determinant.Conclusion: NSCLC patients with preoperative high NLR, patients with a persistently high NLR after surgery had poor prognosis.