Purpose: Metastatic gastric cancer (mGC) is linked with worse prognosis, and tools are needed for predicting disease course and chemotherapy response. The value of the change in the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) during first-line palliative chemotherapy on the outcomes in patients with mGC is not fully explained. This study aimed to investigate the importance of changes in NLR in predicting disease course and chemotherapy response in mGC.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 194 patients diagnosed with mGC between August 2005 and November 2016. The NLR was assessed before and after chemotherapy to evaluate its relationship with survival. According to threshold values determined by receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis, the NLR was divided into two groups with <2.6 and ≥2.6.
Results: Elevated prechemotherapy NLR was significantly correlated with worse overall survival (OS) on univariate analysis (p=0.01). On multivariate analysis, elevated prechemotherapy NLR (HR 1.43, p=0.036) was an independent prognostic element for worse OS, but not for progression-free survival (PFS). Constantly elevated NLR or an increase in NLR after chemotherapy was correlated with poor OS, PFS and chemotherapy response. In the multivariate analysis, constantly elevated NLR was identified to be independent predictor of reduced OS and PFS.
Conclusion: NLR change during chemotherapy is a better index than prechemotherapy NLR for predicting survival in patients with mCG.