Neutrophil–Lymphocyte Ratio as a Predictive Factor of Growing Malignant Pulmonary Ground-glass Opacity

BACKGROUND: The object of the study was to elucidate the relationship between the neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the growth of pulmonary ground-glass opacity (GGO) in stage IA lung adenocarcinoma. METHODS: All patients with GGO following surgical procedures were enrolled, with the time of follow-up and the variation tendency of GGO recorded. Meanwhile, laboratory parameters, age, gender, smoking history, histology, tumor size, and stage were recorded. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the value of NLR and the cutoff value was calculated by SPSS 22.0. RESULTS: In the whole cohort, 30 cases of growing GGO and 43 cases of stable GGO undergoing surgical procedures were diagnosed as lung adenocarcinoma. There was significant statistical difference between the two groups. Multivariable analysis showed that NLR could predict the GGOs with growth (odds ratio 5.198, 95% confidence interval (95%CI: 1.583–14.581, P=0.002). Receiver operating characteristics analysis for NLR showed the optimal cutoff value of 2.38, with a sensitivity of 60.0% and specificity of 81.4%. CONCLUSION: Our study demonstrated that the NLR appeared to have value as a promising clinical predictor of GGOs with growth. Further studies are needed to confirm this conclusion.