Preoperative Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio and Platelet to Lymphocyte Ratio are Associated with the Prognosis of Group 3 and Group 4 Medulloblastoma

Inflammation and immunoreaction markers were correlated with the survival of patients in many tumors. However, there were no reports investigating the relationships between preoperative hematological markers and the prognosis of medulloblastoma (MB) patients based on the molecular subgroups (WNT, SHH, Group 3, and Group 4). A total 144 MB patients were enrolled in the study. The differences of preoperative hematological markers among molecular subgroups of MB were compared by One-way ANOVA method. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the curves of progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). The comparison of survival rates in different groups were conducted by the Log-rank test. Multivariate analysis was used to evaluate independent prognostic factors. Increased preoperative NLR (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, PFS, P = 0.004, OS, P < 0.001) and PLR (platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, PFS, P = 0.028, OS, P = 0.003) predicted poor prognosis in patients with MB, while preoperative MLR (monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio), MPV (mean platelet volume), PDW (platelet distribution width), and AGR (albumin-to-globulin ratio) were revealed no predictive value on the prognosis of patients with MB. Furthermore, high preoperative NLR and PLR predicted unfavorable prognosis in childhood MB patients. However, preoperative NLR and PLR were not associated with the prognosis in adult MB patients. Multivariate analysis demonstrated preoperative NLR (PFS, P = 0.029, OS, P = 0.005) and PLR (PFS, P = 0.023, OS, P = 0.005) were the independent prognostic factors in MB patients. Emphatically, the levels of preoperative NLR and PLR in Group 3 MB were significantly higher than those in WNT MB. High preoperative NLR was associated with unfavorable OS in Group 3 (P = 0.032) and Group 4 (P = 0.027) tumors. Similarly, increased preoperative PLR predicted poor PFS (P = 0.012) and OS (P = 0.009) in Group 4 tumors. Preoperative NLR and PLR were the potential prognostic markers for MB patients. Preoperative NLR and PLR were significantly associated with the survival of Group 3 and Group 4 tumors.