Clinical and prognostic significance of preoperative lymphocyte-monocyte ratio, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil-monocyte ratio on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients

BACKGROUND: The interaction between tumor cells and inflammatory cells has not been systematically investigated in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether preoperative lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and neutrophil-monocyte ratio (NMR) could predict the prognosis of ESCC patients undergoing esophagectomy. METHODS: A total of 1,883 patients with histologically diagnosed ESCC who underwent radical esophagectomy from May 2005 to May 2015 were retrospectively reviewed. Besides clinicopathological factors, “Survminer” package in R(®) was applied to determine the optimal cut-off point for LMR, NLR and NMR. Meanwhile, we evaluated the prognostic value of LMR, NLR, and PLR using Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox regression models. RESULTS: The median follow-up was 28.77 months (range, 1.60–247.90 months). The optimal cut-off point of LMR, NLR and NMR is 3.83, 2.06 and 7.21, respectively. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis of patients with low preoperative LMR demonstrated a significant worse prognosis for 5-year OS (P<0.001) than those with high preoperative LMR. The high NLR cohort had lower 5-year OS (P<0.001). No significant difference with 5-year OS was found in NMR (P=0.405). On multivariate analysis, preoperative LMR (P=0.018; HR =0.786, 95% CI: 0.645, 0.959) and NLR (P=0.028; HR =1.247, 95% CI: 1.024, 1.519) were the independent prognostic factors in ESCC patients. Integrating LMR and NLR, we divided the ESCC patients in four groups according to their cut-off points and we found the patients in LMR ≥3.83 and NLR <2.06 group received the best prognosis while the prognosis of patients in LMR<3.83 and NLR ≥2.06 group was the worst. The difference was statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative LMR and NLR better predicts cancer survival in patients with ESCC undergoing esophagectomy, especially under the circumstances of LMR ≥3.83 and NLR <2.06.