Pretreatment platelet to lymphocyte ratio is predictive of overall survival in metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate whether the pretreatment platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a significant prognostic factor in metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). METHODS: A total of 134 histologically confirmed PDAC patients were included in our retrospective study. The data included treatment regimens, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), and PLR. Kaplan-Meier curves and univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analyses were applied to identify the prognostic factors associated with overall survival (OS). RESULTS: We used the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve to set the cut-off value of the PLR. For the Kaplan-Meier analysis, the median overall survival in PDAC patients with a PLR of 123 or less was 19.7 months, whereas the values in those with a PLR greater than 123 was 13.7 months (P=0.014). PLR was a significant prognostic marker in the multivariate Cox model [hazard ratio (HR) =1.721, 95% CI: 1.162–2.550, P=0.007]. CONCLUSIONS: The PLR pretreatment had potential as prognostic indicator in patients with metastatic PDAC.