Abstract
Published data on the prognostic significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are controversial. We performed a meta-analysis to more accurately assess its prognostic value. The analysis was performed based on the data from 14 studies with 3,656 patients to estimate the correlation between NLR and overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in NSCLC. Hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated to estimate the effect. We also conducted subgroup analysis and meta-regression analysis. The results demonstrated that elevated pretreatment NLR predicted poorer OS (HR: 1.70, 95% CI: 1.39–2.09) and PFS (HR: 1.63, 95% CI: 1.27–2.09) in patients with NSCLC. Subgroup analysis indicated that cut-off value of 5 showed consistently prognostic value. There was no significant heterogeneity or publication bias for OS and PFS for included studies. This meta-analysis revealed that elevated pretreatment NLR might be a predicative factor of poor prognosis for NSCLC patients.
Highlights
Studies suggest a potential prognostic role of NLR in Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, the majority of the studies had relatively limited sample sizes[19,20,21,22,23]
As the study by Botta et al.[28] included two cohorts and reported the hazard ratio (HR) and 95%confidence intervals (CIs) respectively, we marked them as Botta[1] and Botta[2]
Assessment of publication bias by using Begg’s test suggested that were no significant publication bias in overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) studies (p = 0 .2 and p = 0.721, respectively). This meta-analysis aimed to examine the associations between elevated pretreatment NLR and OS and PFS of NSCLC
Summary
Studies suggest a potential prognostic role of NLR in NSCLC patients, the majority of the studies had relatively limited sample sizes[19,20,21,22,23]. Some authors presented conflicting data regarding the prognostic significance of NLR in NSCLC24. We conducted this meta-analysis to systematically clarify the prognostic value of NLR in NSCLC patients
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