Prognostic Value of White Blood Cells Detected for the First Time After Adjuvant Chemotherapy in Primary Operable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prognostic value of white blood cells detected for the first time after adjuvant chemotherapy in primary operable non-small cell lung cancer. METHODS: From January 2010 to May 2016, data from 208 patients who underwent surgery for non-small cell lung cancer were retrospectively analyzed. RESULTS: A white blood cell count detected for the first time after adjuvant chemotherapy greater than 7.00 was an independent predictor of poor disease-free survival (Hazard ratio: 1.736, 95% confidence interval: 1.267-2.378; P = .001) and overall survival (Hazard ratio: 1.802, 95% confidence interval: 1.305-2.471; P = .000). In a further study, after myelosuppression, survival analysis indicated that the patients with white blood cell counts <2.5 had poorer survival than patients with blood cell counts 2.5 to 4.0, P = .031. When the analysis was stratified by the type of histology, patients with a white blood cell count >7.00 and increased white blood cell after chemotherapy compared to pretreatment had a poorer prognosis than patients with white blood cell ≤7.00 and no increase in white blood cell, P = .000 and P = .002, respectively. We further evaluated the prognosis of the 2 groups in different levels of white blood cell. In the group of patients with white blood cell ≤4.0, patients with chemotherapy cycles ≤2, and >2 showed no differences (Hazard ratio: 2.346, 95% confidence interval: 0.288-19.073, P = .425). In the group of patients with white blood cell of 4.0 to 7.0, the prognosis of patients with chemotherapy cycles ≤2 and patients with chemotherapy cycles >2 showed no difference (Hazard ratio: 0.560, 95% confidence interval: 0.248-1.261, P = .161). In the group of patients with white blood cell >7.0, patients with >2 chemotherapy cycles had a better prognosis than patients with chemotherapy cycles ≤2 (Hazard ratio: 0.573, 95% confidence interval: 0.338-0.971, P = .037) CONCLUSIONS: The level of white blood cells detected for the first time after adjuvant chemotherapy is an independent risk factor for non-small cell lung cancer, especially for patients with nonadenocarcinoma. In addition, the level of white blood cells after postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy and its change compared with pretreatment might also provide useful information regarding the best choice of cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy.