Postoperative Monocyte Count Change Is a Better Predictor of Survival Than Preoperative Monocyte Count in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

In esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, an elevated preoperative absolute monocyte count (Pre-AMC) is reported to be a predictor of survival, but the clinical application of postoperative absolute monocyte count change (AMCc) remains unknown. The present study was designed to investigate the prognostic value of AMCc in ESCC. 686 patients of ESCC after radical surgery without preoperative adjuvant therapy were enrolled. The Pre-AMC and AMCc were recorded within one week before the operation and one week after surgery. We considered the median of Pre-AMC as the optimal cut-off value to evaluate the relationship between Pre-AMC and patient survival. AMCc was defined as AMCc increased (higher than Pre-AMC) and AMCc decreased (lower than Pre-AMC). Demographic and clinical characteristics, disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) were statistically analyzed. Multivariate analysis revealed that AMCc was a better independent prognostic factor for both OS (P = 0.002, HR = 0.614, 95% CI 0.450-0.837) and DFS (P = 0.023, HR = 0.656, 95% CI 0.456-0.943) than Pre-AMC which was only an independent prognostic factor for OS (P = 0.033, HR = 2.031, 95% CI 1.058-3.898). AMCc could be a better prognostic factor than Pre-AMC in patients with ESCC. AMCc decrease predicts worse OS and DFS in ESCC undergoing curative resection.