Prognostic significance of NLR kinetics in operable triple negative breast cancer.

Abstract

e14201 Background: Inflammatory response exacerbates mechanisms linked to tumor growth and dissemination. As an index of systemic inflammatory marker, neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be a predictive biomarker of both prognosis and outcome in several malignancies. However very few reports have addressed the association of change in NLR and outcome in operable breast cancer. We evaluated preoperative NLR and postoperative NLR to assess which one would be predictive of disease outcome in triple negative breast cancer patients. Methods: This study included 67 stage I-III triple negative breast cancer patients diagnosed at HCG Cancer center, between 2013 to 2015. Those patients who underwent upfront surgery were included in the study. Patients who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy and those without adequate medical records were excluded. The NLR was calculated from the differential count by dividing neutrophil percentage with lymphocyte percentage. All preoperative NLRs were calculated from medical records, at the first visit. Postoperative NLR was obtained before first cycle chemotherapy. The NLR was divided into high if ratio is > 3 and low if it is ≤ 3. We evaluated prognostic value of NLR on 3 year DFS. Results: The median preoperative NLR was 2.52 (Range 0.77-8.6). The pre op NLR was high in 19 patients (28%) and low in 48 patients (72%). There was no significant difference between two groups in baseline characteristics. Among the preoperative High and low NLR groups, 3 year DFS is statistically significant. The median postoperative NLR was 2.23 (Range 0.89-8.1). The post operative NLR was high in 7 patients (11%) and low in 60 patients (89%). Among the postoperative High and low NLR groups, 3 year DFS is statistically not significant. The 12 (63%) patients in the high preoperative NLR patients were converted to of the low NLR after surgery. Conclusions: Preoperative NLR correlated with outcome in operable triple negative breast cancer than postoperative NLR. The NLR kinetics might be an index of response to the treatment which needs to be evaluated in prospective studies. Drawbacks of the study: single centre, retrospective study and small sample size.[Table: see text][Table: see text]