Clinical implication of pretreatment neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in soft tissue sarcoma.
BACKGROUND
Elevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio has been identified as a prognostic indicator in malignancies whereas; its association with extremity and trunk soft tissue sarcoma remain unclear. The aim of this study is to determine the utility of full blood neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in preoperative diagnosis and its predictive value for survival in patients managed for soft tissue sarcoma of the trunk and extremities.


METHODS
223 patients who presented with a soft tissue tumor were retrospectively reviewed. The study period was from January 2002-December 2009. Preoperative NLR as well as demographics, clinical and histopathological data were analysed.


RESULTS
Full blood NLR was significantly higher in patient with a soft tissue sarcoma compared to benign soft tissue tumors (p < 0.001). Cox regression analysis demonstrated that elevated NLR >5 (p < 0.05) may be an adverse prognostic factor for Overall Survival.


CONCLUSIONS
The preoperative NLR is a simple, investigation predicting the preoperative diagnosis of a soft tissue sarcoma and a predictor of worse overall survival for patient with a soft tissue sarcoma.
Liverpool Sarcoma Unit, Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals, Liverpool, UK. ashikoashiko@yahoo.com
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D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D055815:Young Adult