Prognostic Role of NLR in Urinary Cancers: A Meta-Analysis

BACKGROUND: Recently, many studies explored the role of inflammation parameters such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the prognosis of urinary cancers, but the results were not consistent. METHODS: We carried out a meta-analysis of published studies to assess the prognostic value of NLR in patients with urinary cancers. Hazard ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association of NLR and OS and RFS/CSS. RESULTS: The pooled results showed that high NLR was a poor predictor for OS with HR of 1.81 (95%CI: 1.48–2.21; P(heterogeneity) = 0.005) and RFS/CSS (HR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.65–2.6; P(heterogeneity) = 0.849). Subgroup analyses revealed that high NLR yielded a worse OS in RCC (HR = 1.9, 95%CI: 1.47–2.45; P(heterogeneity) = 0.003) and a poor RFS/CSS in RCC (HR = 1.83, 95%CI: 1.35–2.48; P(heterogeneity) = 0.709), bladder cancer (HR = 2.2, 95%CI: 1.27–3.8; P(heterogeneity) = 0.447) and urothelial carcinoma (HR = 2.58, 95%CI: 1.66–4.01; P(heterogeneity) = 0.784). CONCLUSION: Our results showed that NLR could act as a significant biomarker in the prognosis of urinary cancers.