Inflammation Markers Have Important Value in Predicting Relapse in Patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma: A Long-Term Follow-Up Retrospective Study

PURPOSE: Many markers of inflammation are increasingly found to have prognostic significance in some cancers. This study investigated the prognostic value of albumin/globulin (AGR), lymphocyte/monocyte ratio (LMR), and other inflammatory markers, including neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the data of 764 patients newly diagnosed with PTC (608 women, 156 men) aged 10-83 years. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to analyze recurrence rates and assess potential prognostic factors. Furthermore, we used random survival forests to construct a random survival forest score (RSFscore). The correlations between various inflammatory factors and traditional prognostic factors were analyzed. We also compared the areas under the curve (AUCs) of the RSFscore and 4 inflammation-based markers. RESULTS: AGR, NLR, PLR, and LMR were strongly associated with invasive clinicopathological features (tumor size, lesions, lymph node metastasis, and lymph node metastasis rate) and postoperative recurrence. In the multivariate analysis, AGR and LMR were independent prognostic markers for recurrent PTC. Higher NLR and PLR values indicated a higher risk of recurrence, while higher LMR and AGR values suggested a lower recurrence risk. The predictive power of the combined indicators was stronger than that of single indicators alone. CONCLUSION: Compared to the analysis of a single indicator, the combination of inflammatory markers was more helpful in determining the risk of PTC recurrence, which has an important impact on predicting patients’ cancer-free survival and quality of life.