Neutrophil/Lymphocyte Ratio predicts resection margin status and lymphovascular invasion in patients with resectable oesophageal and gastric adenocarcinomas who received neoadjuvant FLOT.
Year: 2019
Session type: Poster / e-Poster / Silent Theatre session
Theme: Early detection, diagnosis and prognosis
Abstract
Background
Increased neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been correlated with worse outcome and survival in different malignancies. In this research, we aimed to compare the prognostic significance of NLR in patients with oesophagogastric adenocarcinoma who received neoadjuvant FLOT followed by radical resection.
Method
62 patients following neoadjuvant FLOT between October 2017 and February 2019 in the Yorkshire and Humber region were included in the analysis. The correlation of NLR with clinical data including clinical stage, Mandard regression grade, resection margins (R), lymphovascular invasion (LVI) was evaluated. Mann Whitney non parametric test was used to compare continuous variables.
Results
Baseline pre-chemotherapy bloods were analysed. Median blood neutrophil levels were 5.1/nL (range, 2.1-15.0), and median lymphocyte levels 1.5/nL (range, 0.2-3.2). Median NLR was 3.4 (range, 0.8-18.5). Median NLR levels were 2.6 (range, 1.7-18.2) in patients who achieved Mandard pathological regression grade 1-2 and 4.0 (range, 0.8-18.5) in grade 3-5 (p=0.674). Median NLR was 3.8 (range, 0.8-18.2) in patients who had R0 resection and 7.0 (range, 3.0-10.7) in those with R1 resection (p=0.012). Also, median NLR was 3.1 (range, 0.8-13.3) in patients who had tumours without LVI and median NLR was 6.8 (range, 1.9-18.2) in patients with LVI (p=0.027). Predictive accuracy (ROC AUC) of NLR for Resection margin was 0.743 (95%CI, 0.587-0.900) and for LVI was 0.719 (95%CI, 0.576-0.862).
Conclusion
The results suggest that the elevated pre-chemotherapy NLR predicts involved resection margins and lymphovascular invasion in patients with distal oesophageal, GOJ and gastric cancers. These preliminary results will need to be validated in a bigger cohort and correlation with survival data will follow.