TITLE:
Is Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio a Prediction Marker for Success of Immunotherapy? Preliminary Results
AUTHORS:
Noam Asna, Ornit Cohen, Ron Batash, Asaf Sigron, Tatiana Harkovski, Moshe Schaffer
KEYWORDS:
Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyteratio (NLR), Cancer Immunotherapy, Biomarker, Cancer Treatment, Chemotherapy
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Immunology,
Vol.8 No.2,
June
29,
2018
ABSTRACT: Background: Cancer immunotherapy treatments enhance the cancer treatment approach.
The neutrophil-to-lymphocyteratio (NLR) has been associated with cancer
prognosis, affecting progression, chemosensitivity, radiosensitivity and toxicity. Patients
and Methods: Ten patients (nine males, one female), aged 68 ± 10 years, were included in this study. Six patients had squamous cell carcinoma of
the lungs and two had
adenocarcinoma of the lungs. One patient suffered from limb soft tissue sarcoma
and one had renal
cell carcinoma. All patients had metastatic disease and were pretreated with
chemotherapy or biologic agents. The rationale of testing NLR was to compare it to
the clinical response of the patients assessed by RECIST criteria using
computerized tomography (CT) scans. Results: In regression analysis,
older patients were found to respond better to immunotherapy treatment than
younger patients. NLR was 4.26 ± 2.25 (p 0.01)
in the older patients group and 2.84 ± 0.90 (p 0.01) in the younger
patients group. No
difference in response according to tumor type (p = 0.479)
was observed. Conclusion: We provide preliminary evidence demonstrating
that low NLR helps in understanding the value of the underlying immune system
in expecting a good outcome to immune treatment. The NLR is a simple and
available biomarker, easy to apply in clinical practice.