Prognostic value of NLR and PLR on the survival of patients with locally advanced head and neck cancer treated with radical concurrent chemoradiotherapy

ObjectiveTo analyze the effects of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio(NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio(PLR) on the overall survival(OS) in patients with head and neck cancer before radical concurrent chemoradiotherapy.

MethodsThe clinical data of 205 patients with head and neck tumors treated with radical concurrent chemoradiotherapy were retrospectively analyzed.The effects of NLR and PLR on OS were analyzed, and the influencing factors related to patient OS were investigated.

ResultsThe results of binary logistic regression showed that the NLR and PLR significantly affected OS before treatment(P < 0.01).The cutoff values of NLR and PLR were calculated by ROC curve: the NLR was 2.554(AUC=0.732, P < 0.01), and the PLR was 213.931(AUC=0.780, P < 0.01).The patients were divided into the NLR^high, NLR^low, PLR^high and PLR^low groups according to the cutoff values.The results of survival analysis showed that the OS of NLR^low and NLR^high groups were 44(42, 46) months and 31(28, 34) months, respectively, and the difference of which was statistically significant between two groups (χ²=39.93, P < 0.01);the OS of PLR^low and PLR^high groups were 44(42, 46) months and 34(31, 37) months, respectively, and the difference of which was statistically significant between two groups (χ²=24.36, P < 0.01).The results of univariate analysis showed that the NLR, PLR, tumor primary site and tumor pathological type were related to the OS of patients(P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).The results of multivariate analysis showed that the NLR, PLR and pathological type were related to the OS of patients (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).

ConclusionsThe NLR and PLR are the independent influencing factors of OS in patients with head and neck tumors, and the patients with lower NLR and PLR before treatment have longer survival time.