Pretreatment neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Abstract

e12570Background: Neutrophils are known to promote tumor cell proliferation, angiogenesis, and distant metastasis while lymphocytes play an important role in immune activity against tumor cells. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been shown to have prognostic value in various types of malignancies including TNBC. (Pristelli et al BMC Cancer 2015) Prognostic biomarkers of response and outcome are needed to optimally teat TNBC in the curative setting. We assessed NLR as a prognostic indicator in patients with TNBC treated with neoadjuvant metronomic chemotherapy. Methods: Retrospective chart analysis was performed on patients with TNBC who were treated as part of a phase II protocol neoadjuvant metronomic chemotherapy in TNBC (NCT00542191) with weekly doxorubicin 24 mg/m2 + daily oral cyclophosphamide 60 mg/m2 x 12 weeks followed by weekly paclitaxel 80 mg/m2 + weekly carboplatin AUC 2 x 12 weeks. NLR was measured pretreatment, after completion of Doxorubicin and Cytoxan, and after completing Paclitax...