A Composite Biomarker of Derived Neutrophil–Lymphocyte Ratio and Platelet–Lymphocyte Ratio Correlates With Outcomes in Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients Treated With Anti-PD-1 Antibodies

BACKGROUND: The highly heterogeneous characteristics of GC may limit the accuracy of a single biomarker for screening populations benefiting from immunotherapy. However, the combination of multiple indicators can provide more directed information for the detection of potential immune benefit subgroups. At present, there are no recognized complex indexes to identify advanced GC (AGC) in patients who likely benefited from immunotherapy. The objective of this research is to explore whether the composite biomarker of derived neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (dNLR) and platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) can be used as a reliable prognostic factor for the survival of AGC patients receiving immunotherapy. METHODS: From December 2014 to May 2021, a total 238 AGC patients at a single Center were included in this retrospective cohort research study. The cutoff value of dNLR was obtained by the ROC curves to predict the disease progression rate at the 8th month and the cutoff value of PLR was estimated by the median value. The cutoff values of dNLR and PLR were 1.95 and 163.63, respectively. The high levels of dNLR (≥1.95) and PLR (≥163.63) were considered to be risk factors. Based on these two risk factors, patients were categorized into 3 groups: the risk factor number for the “good” group was 0, that for the “intermediate” group was 1, and that for the “poor” group was 2. The subjects were divided into two groups: dNLR/PLR-good and dNLR/PLR-intermediate/poor. RESULTS: Of the 238 patients, the median overall survival (mOS) and progression-free survival (mPFS) were 12.5 and 4.7 months, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that the good dNLR/PLR group was independently associated with better prognosis. The intermediate/poor dNLR/PLR group was independently correlated with an over 1.4 times greater risk of disease progression (4.1 months vs. 5.5 months; p = 0.016) and an over 1.54 times greater risk of death (11.1 months vs. 26.3 months; p = 0.033) than the good dNLR/PLR group. However, no clear differences in the disease control rate (DCR) and overall response rate (ORR) were observed between the intermediate/poor dNLR/PLR group and the good dNLR/PLR group (51.5% vs. 56.3%, 26.3% vs. 29.6%; p = 0.494, p = 0.609). CONCLUSION: Our study firstly verifies that the composite biomarker of dNLR and PLR is an independent prognostic factor affecting survival of advanced AGC patients receiving immunotherapy. It may be difficult for patients with the intermediate/poor dNLR/PLR group to benefit from immunotherapy.