Pretreatment levels of peripheral neutrophils and lymphocytes as independent prognostic factors in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the counts and percentages of differential leukocytes as prognostic indicators in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).


METHODS
This study consisted of 1410 cases identified from an established prospective cohort of 1533 patients with NPC between October 2005 and October 2007 in the Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses were applied.


RESULTS
A high percentage of lymphocyte was significantly associated with a favorable prognosis of NPC (highest vs lowest quartile, hazard ratio [HR], 95% confidence interval [CI] for overall and progression-free survival, HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.48-1.06; HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.43-0.86, respectively), whereas a high neutrophil percentage (HR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.06-2.46; HR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.10-2.18, respectively), and a neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR; HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.04-2.39; HR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.19-2.38, respectively), were significantly related to a poor prognosis of NPC.


CONCLUSIONS
Pretreatment NLR and percentages of lymphocyte and neutrophil are independent prognostic factors and may serve as clinically convenient and useful biomarkers for survival of patients with NPC.
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China.
Jian-Rong
JR
He
Guo-Ping
GP
Shen
Ze-Fang
ZF
Ren
Han
H
Qin
Cui
C
Cui
Ying
Y
Zhang
Yi-Xin
YX
Zeng
Wei-Hua
WH
Jia
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality*; D009504:Neutrophils; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult