Prognostic assessment of C‑reactive protein and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in patients with non-small cell lung cancer.

Abstract

To investigate the prognostic assessment of inflammatory factor serum C‑reactive protein CRP and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio NLR value in patients with non-small cell lung cancer NSCLC. A retrospective analysis was conducted for 475 patients with NSCLC who visited our hospital with complete follow-up data from January 2017 to 1 January 2019. The changes of serum CRP, NLR levels in patients with NSCLC of different stages, as well as the changes in the levels of the two indexes before and after chemotherapy in patients with advanced stage were compared using t tests with SPSS19.0 software. Serum CRP and NLR were divided into low and high groups with median intercept values and the relationship between inflammation score index and tumor progression-free survival time (PFS) was analyzed retrospectively. Clinical factors that may affect disease prognosis were included in the proportional hazards (COX) regression model for multifactorial prognostic analysis. Pretreatment serum levels of NLR and CRP were significantly higher in non-operated patients relative to preoperative levels in surgical patients. Advanced patients had higher levels of both indexes than locally advanced patients. After chemotherapy, the levels of the two indexes reaching remission were significantly lower than those before chemotherapy. The levels of the two indexes in patients with stable disease after chemotherapy were not statistically significant compared with those before chemotherapy, and the levels of the two indexes in the group with progressive disease after chemotherapy were significantly higher than those before chemotherapy. The results of PFS survival analyses showed that PFS was prolonged in the low score CRP and the low score NLR group, compared with the high score group. Multifactorial prognostic analysis showed that smoking, CRP and NLR were risk factors for PFS prognosis in patients with NSCLC. Serum CRP and NLR are effective predictors of poor prognosis in patients with NSCLC.