title: Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) improves the risk assessment of ISS staging in newly diagnosed MM patients treated upfront with novel agents.
abstract: Recent reports identify the ratio between absolute neutrophil count (ANC) and absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), called neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), as a predictor of progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in various malignancies. We retrospectively examined the NLR in a cohort of 309 newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients treated upfront with novel agents. NLR was calculated using data obtained from the complete blood count (CBC) at diagnosis and subsequently correlated with PFS and OS. The median NLR was 1.9 (range 0.4-15.9). Higher NLR was independent of international staging system (ISS) stage, plasma cell infiltration or cytogenetics. The 5-year PFS and OS estimates were, respectively, 18.2 and 36.4 % for patients with NLR ≥ 2 versus 25.5 and 66.6 % in patients with NLR < 2. Among younger patients (age <65 years, N = 179), NLR ≥ 2 had a negative prognostic impact on both PFS and OS, in all ISS stages. By combining ISS stage and NLR in a model limited to young patients, we found that 19 % of the patients were classified as very low risk, 70 % standard risk and 11 % very high risk. The 5-year estimates were 39.3, 19.4 and 10.9 % for PFS and 95.8, 50.9 and 23.6 % for OS for very low, standard-risk and very high-risk groups. We found NLR to be a predictor of PFS and OS in MM patients treated upfront with novel agents. NLR can be combined with ISS staging system to identify patients with dismal outcome. However, larger cohorts and prospective studies are needed to use NLR as additional parameter to personalise MM therapy in the era of novel agents.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Azienda Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele-Catania, Catania, Italy. sandrina.romano@gmail.com.|Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. sandrina.romano@gmail.com.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Azienda Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele-Catania, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: N L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Parrinello
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Azienda Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele-Catania, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Consoli
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Marchionni
authors.affiliation: IOM Ricerca, Viagrande, Italy.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Forte
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Azienda Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele-Catania, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Conticello
authors.affiliation: Divisione di Ematologia, IRCCS, Fondazione San Matteo, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pompa
authors.affiliation: Divisione di Ematologia, IRCCS, Fondazione San Matteo, Pavia, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Corso
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Azienda Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele-Catania, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Milone
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, Azienda Policlinico-Vittorio Emanuele-Catania, Catania, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Raimondo
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Borrello
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D015507:Drugs, Investigational / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D060828:Induction Chemotherapy / Q000379:methods; D000077269:Lenalidomide; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology*; D020360:Neoadjuvant Therapy; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009504:Neutrophils / Q000473:pathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D013792:Thalidomide / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives
chemical_list: D015507:Drugs, Investigational; D013792:Thalidomide; D000077269:Lenalidomide
keywords: Granulocyte; ISS; Lymphocyte; Multiple myeloma