Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of our study was to assess the prognostic value of the ratio of neutrophil to lymphocyte (NLR) for patients with surgically treated endometrial cancer (EC). METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 510 EC patients who were surgically treated between January 2010 and December 2016. We used receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to identify an optimal cut-off for NLR in predicting overall survival (OS), cancer-specific survival (CSS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Nonparametric tests were used to determine the associations between NLR and clinicopathologic characteristics. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional-hazards regression were used for survival analysis. RESULTS: With a cut-off of 2.47, the 510 patients were divided into low NLR (NLR <2.47) and high NLR (NLR ≥2.47). Elevated NLR was associated with advanced stage (P=0.039), increased histology grade (P=0.005) and lymph node metastasis (P=0.041). Multivariable analysis suggested that NLR was an independent prognostic marker for OS (hazard ratio [HR] 4.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.5-14.1; P =0.006), CSS (HR 3.6; 95% CI, 1.1-11.5; P =0.028) and DFS (HR 2.3; 95% CI, 1.0-5.2; P =0.044). CONCLUSION: NLR may be an independent prognostic indicator for OS, CSS and DFS. It could help clinicians with preoperative risk stratification and treatment strategy tailoring.