Preoperative platelet/lymphocyte ratio is a superior prognostic factor compared to other systemic inflammatory response markers in ovarian cancer patients

• Published in: Tumor biology 2015-11, Vol.36 (11), p.8831-8837
• Main Authors: Zhang, Wei-wei, Liu, Ke-jun, Hu, Guo-lin, Liang, Wei-jiang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Aged; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - blood; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Blood Platelets; C-Reactive Protein - metabolism; Cancer Research; Disease-Free Survival; Female; Humans; Inflammation - blood; Inflammation - pathology; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Lymphocytes; Medical prognosis; Middle Aged; Ovarian cancer; Ovarian Neoplasms - blood; Ovarian Neoplasms - pathology; Prognosis; Research Article
• ISSN: 1010-4283; 1423-0380
• DOI: 10.1007/s13277-015-3533-9

The aim of the present study was to determine the most meaningful preoperative prognostic factor of cancer-related death in ovarian cancer patients by comparing potentially prognostic systemic inflammatory response (SIR) markers. The levels of fibrinogen, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and serum cancer antigen-125 (CA-125) and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were evaluated in 190 ovarian cancer patients to identify predictors of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) using univariate and multivariate analyses. Patients with a PLR >203 had a shorter PFS and OS than the patients in PLR ≤203 group (11 vs. 24 months and 28 vs. 64 months). Univariate analyses revealed that tumor stage, postoperative residual tumor mass, ascites, and the levels of all SIR markers were associated with PFS and OS. Multivariate analysis revealed that PLR was independently associated with PFS (hazard ratio [HR] 1.852, 95 % confidence interval [CI] 1.271–2.697, P  = 0.001) and OS (HR 2.158, 95 %CI 1.468–3.171, P  203 were more prone to have advanced tumor stage ( P  = 0.002), postoperative residual tumor mass >2 cm ( P  = 0.032), malignant ascites ( P