Peripheral blood absolute lymphocyte/monocyte ratio recovery during ABVD treatment cycles predicts clinical outcomes in classical Hodgkin lymphoma

The peripheral blood absolute lymphocyte/monocyte count ratio at diagnosis (ALC/AMC-DX) predicts survival in classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). However, a limitation of the ALC/AMC-DX is the inability to assess sequentially the host/tumor interaction during treatment. Therefore, we retrospectively examined the ALC/AMC ratio, as a surrogate marker of host immunity (ALC) and tumor microenvironment (AMC), at each adriamycin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine treatment cycle as a predictor for clinical outcomes. From 1990 until 2008, 190 cHL patients were diagnosed, treated and followed at Mayo Clinic Rochester and qualified for the study. The ALC/AMC ratio at each treatment cycle was a predictor for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS). An ALC/AMC ratio ⩾1.1 versus ALC/AMC <1.1 during treatment cycles was an independent predictor for OS (hazard ratio (HR)=0.14; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.04–0.40; P<0.0002) and for PFS (HR=0.19; 95% CI: 0.05–0.82; P<0.03). The ALC/AMC ratio during treatment cycles is a predictor for survival and provides a platform to develop therapeutic modalities to manipulate the ALC/AMC ratio during chemotherapy to improve clinical outcomes in cHL.