Background: Cancer outcome is considered to result from the interplay of several factors, among which host inflammatory and immune status are deemed to play a significant role. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) have been profitably used as surrogate markers of host immunoinflammatory status and have also been shown to correlate with outcome in several human tumors. However, only a few studies on these biomarkers have been performed in gastric cancer patients, yielding conflicting results.
Methods: Data were retrieved from a prospective institutional database. Overall survival (OS) of 401 patients undergoing surgery for gastric cancer between January 2000 and June 2015 as well as disease-free survival (DFS) rates in 297 radically resected patients were calculated. MaxStat analysis was used to select cutoff values for NLR and LMR.
Results: NLR and LMR did not significantly correlate with tumor stage. Patients with a high NLR and a low LMR experienced more tumor recurrences (p < 0.001) and had a higher hazard ratio (HR) for both OS (HR = 2.4 and HR = 2.10; p < 0.001) and DFS (HR = 2.99 and HR = 2.46; p < 0.001) than low NLR and high LMR subjects. Both biomarkers were shown to independently predict OS (HR = 1.65, p = 0.016; HR = 2.01, p = 0.002, respectively) and DFS (HR = 3.04, p = 0.019; HR = 4.76, p = 0.002, respectively). A score system combining both biomarkers was found to significantly correlate with long-term results.
Conclusions: A simple prognostic score including preoperative NLR and LMR can be used to easily predict outcome in gastric cancer patients undergoing surgery.
Keywords: Gastric cancers; Inflammatory and immune status; Lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio; Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio.