Prognostic utility of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio for cancer patients with brain metastasis

Abstract

This study aims to determine the utility of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte-ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte-ratio (PLR) as prognostic markers for brain metastasis (BM). Employing NLR cutoff values at BM diagnosis, 550 patients were divided into groups I-III (I:<3, II: 3–4.49, III: >4.5), and median overall survival (MOS) was calculated (I: 20 months, II: 13.9 months, and III: 7.5 months). Groups divided by a PLR cutoff (I:250, II:≥250 also differed in MOS (13.9 vs. 9.3 months). After multivariable analysis, only NLR was a significant independent predictor of MOS [I vs. II: 1.5 Hazard Ratio (HR); I vs. III: 1.9 HR].