TY - JOUR T1 - Prognostic Significance of Pre-treatment Neutrophil: Lymphocyte Ratio in Japanese Patients with Breast Cancer JF - Anticancer Research JO - Anticancer Res SP - 3819 LP - 3824 VL - 34 IS - 7 AU - KIICHIROH NAKANO AU - MITSUCHIKA HOSODA AU - MITSUGU YAMAMOTO AU - HIROKO YAMASHITA Y1 - 2014/07/01 UR - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/34/7/3819.abstract N2 - Background: The neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been reported to reflect systemic inflammation and to have independent prognostic value for patients with various cancers. In this study, we analyzed the association between NLR and clinicopathological factors and verified the significance of NLR as a prognostic factor for Japanese patients with breast cancer. Patients and Methods: A total of 167 Japanese female patients with stage I–III breast cancer were retrospectively recruited into this study. Associations with clinicopathological factors and NLR were assessed, and disease-free survival and breast cancer-specific survival were estimated. Results: In multivariate analysis, lymph node metastases and NLR were significantly associated with disease-free survival and breast cancer-specific survival. NLR was significantly higher in patients with lower body-mass index. Conclusion: Preoperative NLR may be an independent prognostic factor for survival in Japanese patients with breast cancer. Reduction of body mass index has been implicated in NLR elevation, particularly in postmenopausal women. ER -