Do routine blood test results help in the diagnosis of spine tumors? A retrospective study of the significance of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios from 503 spine tumor patients

The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are not fully evaluated for the diagnosis of musculoskeletal tumors, especially spine tumors. The objective of our study was to assess the feasibility of NLR and PLR as indicators for pretreatment diagnosis of spine tumors. Patients who underwent surgical treatment in our hospital for spine tumors were retrospectively analyzed. Blood test results (neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts) and final pathological results from surgery or biopsy specimen were collected. Spine tumors were divided into 4 groups. Diagnostic values of NLR and PLR were analyzed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC). There were 503 patients included. The average age of all patients was 46.3 years. Age, NLR, and PLR were significantly different between benign and malignant tumors groups (P < .05), and ROC analysis showed that the AUC was 0.704 and 0.637 for NLR and PLR. Age, location, NLR, and PLR were significantly different between primary and nonprimary tumor groups (P < .05), and ROC analysis showed that the AUC was 0.713 and 0.647 for NLR and PLR. Age, location, NLR, and PLR were significantly different between primary benign and primary malignant tumor groups (P < .05), and ROC analysis showed that the AUC was 0.624 and 0.577 for NLR and PLR. Pretreatment NLR and PLR had clinical significance in the identification and pretreatment diagnosis of spine tumors. Additionally, NLR and PLR were significantly different between benign and malignant tumors, primary and nonprimary tumors, and primary benign and primary malignant tumors.