Pre-treatment neutrophil-lymphocyte and platelet-lymphocyte ratios as additional markers for breast cancer progression: A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer that causes significant morbidity and loss of productivity. Around a third of all breast cancer patients are potentially develop distant metastases albeit the current implementation of multidisciplinary treatment. A simple but effective marker to predict the risks of cancer progression is very important for clinicians to improve treatment and surveillance. METHODS: We recruited 1083 non-metastatic patients and analyzed the ratios of neutrophil to lymphocyte (NLR) and platelet to lymphocyte (PLR) in relation to progression-free survivals (PFS) and risks of distant metastases. RESULTS: Baseline clinicopathological variables were not significantly different in the pretreatment NLR and PLRs. Using maximum points of sensitivity and specificity of the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, cut-off values were determined 2.8 for NLR and 170 for PLR. Higher NLR was associated with skin and chest wall cancer infiltration (T4, P = 0.0001). Elevated PLR was associated with more advanced stages at diagnosis (P = 0.03). High NLR values were significantly associated with risks of disease progression (OR 1.555, 95% CI: 1.206–2.005, P = 0.001). Patients with high NLR had shorter PFS (34.9 vs 53.5 months, Log-rank test = 0.001) and shorter time to develop recurrent distant metastatic disease (66.6 vs 104.6 months, Log-rank test = 0.027). CONCLUSION: High NLR is significantly associated with higher risk of disease progression and shorter time to develop metastases particularly among breast cancer patients diagnosed in the advanced stages.