Prognostic significance of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio in patients with gastric cancer: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Several studies have shown that neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be associated with the prognosis of gastric cancer (GC), but the results are controversial.

METHODS

This study was performed to evaluate the prognostic implications of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio of GC in all available studies. We surveyed 2 medical databases, PubMed and EMBASE, to identify all relevant studies. Data were collected from studies comparing overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with GC.

RESULTS

Ten studies (n = 2,952) evaluated the role of NLR as a predictor of outcome were involved for this meta-analysis (10 for OS, 3 for DFS, and 2 for PFS). Overall and disease-free survival were significantly better in patients with low NLR value and the pooled HRs was significant at 1.83 ([95% CI], 1.62-2.07) and 1.58 ([95% CI], 1.12-2.21), respectively. For progression-free survival, the pooled hazard ratio of NLR was significant at 1.54 ([95% CI], 1.22-1.95). No evidence of significant heterogeneity or publication bias for OS and DFS was seen in any of the included studies.

CONCLUSION

This meta-analysis indicated that elevated NLR may be associated with a worse prognosis for patients with GC.