Abstract
BACKGROUND: The preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are associated with poor prognosis of gastric cancer. We aimed to determine whether the combination of NLR and PLR (NLR-PLR) could better predict survival of patients after curative resection for stage I-II gastric cancer. METHODS: We collected data from the medical records of patients with stage I-II gastric cancer undergoing curative resection between December 2000 and November 2012 at the Sun Yat-sen Cancer Center. The preoperative NLR-PLR was calculated as follows: patients with both elevated NLR (≥2.1) and PLR (≥120) were given a score of 2, and patients with only one or neither were given a score of 1 or 0, respectively. RESULTS: Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank tests revealed significant differences in overall survival (OS) among patients with NLR-PLR scores of 0, 1 and 2 (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that OS was independently associated with the NLR-PLR score [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.51, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.02-2.24, P = 0.039] and TNM stage (HR = 1.36, 95% CI 1.01-1.83, P = 0.041). However, other systemic inflammation-based prognostic scores, including the modified Glasgow prognostic score, the prognostic nutritional index, and the combination of platelet count and NLR, were not. In TNM stage-stratified analysis, the prognostic significance of NLR-PLR was maintained in patients with stage I (P < 0.001) and stage II cancers (P = 0.022). In addition, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for the NLR-PLR score was higher than those of other systemic inflammation-based prognostic scores (P = 0.001). CONCLUSION: The preoperative NLR-PLR score is a useful predictor of postoperative survival in the patients with stage I-II gastric cancer and may help identify high-risk patients for rational therapy and timely follow-up.