title: Prognostic value of PLR in various cancers: a meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recently, more and more studies investigated the association of inflammation parameters such as the Platelet Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR) and the prognosis of various cancers. However, the prognostic role of PLR in cancer remains controversial.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a meta-analysis of published studies to evaluate the prognostic value of PLR in various cancers. In order to investigate the association between PLR and overall survival (OS), the hazard ratio (HR) and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 13,964 patients from 26 studies were included in the analysis. The summary results showed that elevated PLR was a negative predictor for OS with HR of 1.60 (95%CI: 1.35-1.90; Pheterogeneity <0.001). Subgroup analysis revealed that increased PLR was a negative prognostic marker in patients with gastric cancer (HR = 1.35, 95%CI: 0.80-2.25, Pheterogeneity = 0.011), colorectal cancer (HR = 1.65, 95%CI: 1.33-2.05, Pheterogeneity = 0.995), hepatocellular carcinoma (HR = 3.07, 95% CI: 2.04-4.62, Pheterogeneity = 0.133), ovarian cancer (HR = 1.57, 95%CI: 1.07-2.31, Pheterogeneity = 0.641) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) (HR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.42-2.41, Pheterogeneity = 0.451) except for pancreatic cancer (HR = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.92-1.09, Pheterogeneity = 0.388).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The meta-analysis demonstrated that PLR could act as a significant biomarker in the prognosis of various cancers.
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Xin
authors: X
authors: Zhou
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Yiping
authors: Y
authors: Du
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Zebo
authors: Z
authors: Huang
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Xu
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Tianzhu
authors: T
authors: Qiu
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Tongshan
authors: T
authors: Wang
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Zhu
authors: Department of Oncology, First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors: Ping
authors: P
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality*; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010976:Platelet Count; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models