title: Elevated Derived Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Corresponds With Poor Outcome in Patients Undergoing Pre-Operative Chemotherapy in Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer.
abstract: Background:Platinum-based pre-operative chemotherapy (POC) for muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC) increases the complete pathological response rate at cystectomy and improves overall survival. However, 60% of MIBC patients still has muscle-invasive disease at cystectomy despite POC. Therefore, accurate prediction of response to POC is an important clinical need. We hypothesized that an elevated neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) corresponds with adverse outcome in patients undergoing POC and radical cystectomy.Objective:To explore the correlation between the NLR and outcome in MIBC patients treated by POC and radical cystectomy.Methods:In 123 MIBC patients (urothelial carcinoma) who were treated by platinum-based POC and radical cystectomy, the derived NLR (dNLR) was retrospectively calculated by dividing the neutrophil count by the difference between leukocytes and neutrophil counts, prior to the start of chemotherapy. The correlation of the dNLR with pathological response at cystectomy and survival was analyzed by logistic regression analysis or the Kaplan-Meier method.Results:The complete pathological response (ypT0N0Mx) rate was 28.5%, 8.9% obtained a partial response (ypTa/T1/TisN0Mx), and 62.6% were non-responders (stage ≥ ypT2 and/or N+). An elevated dNLR (>2.21) correlated with non-response to POC (OR 2.70, 95% confidence interval: 1.15-6.38,p= 0.02) but this effect was nullified when corrected for clinically node-positive disease and clinical T stage. Patients with an elevated dNLR had shorter progression-free and overall survival albeit non-significant (p= 0.42, andp= 0.45, respectively).Conclusions:An elevated dNLR corresponded with poor outcome in terms of survival and non-response to POC in MIBC patients undergoing radical surgery. However, after correction for well-known prognostic factors, such as positive lymph node status at diagnostic imaging and clinical T stage, the correlation for the dNLR was nullified. Therefore, we conclude that the dNLR is insufficient to predict response to POC in this heterogeneous patient population.
authors: Department of Pathology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Urology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Kim E M
authors: KE
authors: van Kessel
authors: Department of Pathology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute , Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Lorraine M
authors: LM
authors: de Haan
authors: Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Urology, Netherlands Cancer, Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital , Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Elisabeth E
authors: EE
authors: Fransen van de Putte
authors: Department of Surgical Oncology, Division of Urology, Netherlands Cancer, Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital , Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Bas W G
authors: BW
authors: van Rhijn
authors: Department of Medical Oncology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute , Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Ronald
authors: R
authors: de Wit
authors: Department of Medical Oncology, Division of Molecular Carcinogenesis, Netherlands Cancer Institute , Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Michiel S
authors: MS
authors: van der Heijden
authors: Department of Pathology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute , Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Ellen C
authors: EC
authors: Zwarthoff
authors: Department of Urology, Erasmus MC Cancer Institute , Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: Joost L
authors: JL
authors: Boormans
keywords: Urinary bladder neoplasms; biological markers; lymphocytes; neoadjuvant therapy; neutrophils