title: Pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as predictor of survival for patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The outcomes of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) differ between individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on survival in patients with metastatic NPC.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 229 patients with disseminated NPC were evaluated. The effects of pretreatment peripheral blood neutrophil, lymphocyte, and NLR on survival were examined using the proportional hazards regression model to estimate hazard ratio (HR). The relationship between short-term treatment efficacy and pretreatment NLR was analyzed using the chi-square test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The pretreatment elevated neutrophil count (p = .020), percentage of neutrophil (p < .001), and NLR (p = .002) were statistically significantly associated with a poor prognosis. The cutoff value selected for NLR was 3.6. The median survival time was 15.3 months for the high-NLR group and was 23.5 months for the low-NLR group (p < .001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NLR is a prognosticator in patients with metastatic NPC.
authors: Department of Medical Oncology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, Hangzhou, China.
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Jin
authors: Xiao
authors: X
authors: Ye
authors: Chunxiao
authors: C
authors: He
authors: Beibei
authors: B
authors: Zhang
authors: Yiping
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002277:Carcinoma; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality* / Q000556:secondary; D009504:Neutrophils; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents
keywords: lymphocyte; metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma; neutrophil; neutrophil lymphocyte ratio; overall survival