Zhang Xiangwei, Wang Yang, Zhao Linping, Sang Shaowei, Zhang Lin
1 Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
2 Department of Medical Imaging, Shandong Provincial Hospital Affiliated to Shandong University, Jinan, People's Republic of China.
Int J Biol Markers. 2018 Apr 1:1724600818766889. doi: 10.1177/1724600818766889.
The platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is a useful prognostic factor in several cancers. However, the prognostic role of PLR in esophageal cancer remains controversial. The aim of this study is to evaluate the association between PLR and the oncologic outcome of esophageal cancer patients through a meta-analysis. Relevant articles were researched from Embase, PubMed, and Web of Science databases. The meta-analysis was performed using hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as effect measures. Finally, 19 articles with 6134 patients were included in our study. The summary results indicated that the elevated PLR was negatively related to overall survival (HR= 1.263; 95% CI 1.094, 1.458). The subgroup analysis revealed that increased PLR was associated with poor overall survival in esophageal cancer patients for Asians (HR=1.252; 95% CI 1.141, 1.373) but not for Caucasians (HR=1.463; 95% CI 0.611, 3.502). When the patients were segregated by pathological type, sample size, and HR estimate method, high PLR was also significantly correlated with poor overall survival. In contrast, elevated PLR was not statistically associated with disease-free survival or cancer-specific survival. High PLR is associated with poor overall survival in patients with esophageal cancer. PLR may be a significant predictive biomarker in patients with esophageal cancer. Further large-cohort studies are needed to confirm these findings.
血小板与淋巴细胞比值（PLR）是几种癌症中有用的预后因素。然而，PLR在食管癌中的预后作用仍存在争议。本研究的目的是通过荟萃分析评估PLR与食管癌患者肿瘤学结局之间的关联。从Embase、PubMed和Web of Science数据库中检索相关文章。使用风险比（HR）和95%置信区间（CIs）作为效应量进行荟萃分析。最终，本研究纳入了19篇文章，共6134例患者。汇总结果表明，PLR升高与总生存期呈负相关（HR = 1.263；95% CI 1.094，1.458）。亚组分析显示，PLR升高与亚洲食管癌患者的总生存期较差相关（HR = 1.252；95% CI 1.141，1.373），但与高加索人无关（HR = 1.463；95% CI 0.611，3.502）。当按病理类型、样本量和HR估计方法对患者进行分类时，高PLR也与总生存期较差显著相关。相比之下，PLR升高与无病生存期或癌症特异性生存期无统计学关联。高PLR与食管癌患者的总生存期较差相关。PLR可能是食管癌患者的一个重要预测生物标志物。需要进一步的大样本队列研究来证实这些发现。
