Pre-treatment Peripheral Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Marker in Gastric Cancer

Background Gastric cancer is the fifth cancer worldwide. Inflammatory response increases metastasis through apoptosis inhibition and angiogenesis augmentation. The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), which is a balance between pro-cancer inflammatory and anti-cancer immune responses, was proved as prognostic marker. Peripheral NLR is a good reflection of tumor microenvironment. Methods We retrospectively collected data of gastric and gastro-esophageal cancer patients treated from January 2015 till December 2016. Sixty-one patients were included. Pre-treatment NLR was calculated. We extracted the different clinic-epidemiological and pathological data. Event-free and overall survivals were plotted using Kaplan-Meier curves. Results The median age was 55. Male to female ratio was 1:1. Forty-seven patients were smokers. Most of the patients (93.4%) had good performance status (ECOG 0-2). Forty-six patients had gastric and 15 had gastro-esophageal cancer. 50.8% had diffuse gastric type. Grade III represented 49.2% and grade II 46%. Twelve patients had ascites at diagnosis. Stage at presentation was 1.6%, 4.9%, 27.9%, 50.8%, and 14.8% for stage I, II, III, IV, and unknown respectively. The median NLR was 2.4. The NLR showed no significant correlation with different clinic-epidemiologic and pathological variables except presence of ascites; p = 0.046. Median event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) were 6 and 8 months respectively. High NLR was significantly associated with worse survival; EFS, 5 months vs 8 months (95% CI, p = 0.001). OS, 6 months vs 9 months (95% CI, p = 0.013). Conclusion Gastric cancer is an aggressive and fatal disease. NLR can be used as a prognostic marker.