Clinical significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and prognostic nutritional index in low-risk differentiated thyroid carcinoma
Chiara Offi, Roberto Maria Romano, Angelo Cangiano, Giancarlo Candela, Giovanni Docimo
Abstract
Objective. Inflammation and nutritional status play an important role in the prognosis of cancer. Lymphocyte-to monocyte ratio (LMR), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and prognostic nutritional index (PNI) are independent prognostic scores in numerous cancers. However, any study showed their prognostic role in low-risk differentiated thyroid carcinoma (DTC). We aimed to clarify and identify the prognostic value of inflammation indices in low-risk DTC patients. Methods. We analysed data from 116 patients, dividing the population into two groups, according to AJCC staging system (8th edition). The LMR, NLR, PLR and PNI cut-off value were determined using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Disease-free survival (DFS) was calculated with Kaplan-Meyer and Log-Rank tests and the risk of recurrence was calculated with univariate and multivariate Cox regression. Statistical significance was p < 0.05. Results. We found a baseline NLR value ≥ 1.750 (75% sensitivity, 40.2% specificity) and a baseline LMR value of 3.83 (66.7% sensitivity, 48.9% specificity). Overall DFS was 74.995 ± 3.236 with a p value of 0.678. NLR showed a hazard ratio for recurrence with almost twice the risk of recurrence (Adjusted Hazard Ratio /HRA): 1.828, p-value = 0.019). Conclusions. NLR can be considered a prognostic score with twice the risk of recurrence in low-risk DTC patients with NLR < 1.750.