title: Prognostic value of platelet to lymphocyte ratio in hepatocellular carcinoma: a meta-analysis.
abstract: This study was designed to evaluate the prognostic value of platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). A comprehensive literature search for relevant studies was performed in Web of science, Embase and Pubmed. A total of nine studies with 2017 patients were included in this meta-analysis, and combined hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were served as effect measures. Pooled results showed that elevated PLR was associated with poor overall survival (OS) (HR = 1.63, 95%CI: 1.42-1.88, p = 0.000; I2= 0.0%, Ph= 0.637) and poor disease-free survival (DFS)/recurrence-free survival (RFS) (HR=1.32, 95%CI: 1.15-1.52, p = 0.000; I2= 19.3%, Ph= 0.287) in HCC patients. In addition, high PLR was not significantly correlated with the presence of vascular invasion, tumor multifocality, poor tumor grade or high level of serum AFP (>400 ng/ml). In conclusion, elevated PLR indicated a poor prognosis for patients with HCC. PLR may be a reliable, easily-obtained, and low cost biomarker with prognostic potential for HCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Wencong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Litong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Mingcui
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Haochen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoju
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Chunli
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun 130021, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D001792:Blood Platelets; D006528:Carcinoma, Hepatocellular / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008214:Lymphocytes; D010976:Platelet Count; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models