Objective: This study aims at assessing the potential benefits of observation of monocyte-to-albumin ratio (MAR) and neutrophil percentage-to-hemoglobin ratio (NPHR) in the detection of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Methods: This study retrospectively involved 195 NSCLC patients and 204 healthy volunteers. The correlations between the clinicopathological characteristics of NSCLC and the two ratios including MAR and NPHR were assessed. The diagnostic efficiency of NSCLC patients by MAR and NPHR, alone or in combination with carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), was assessed by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. The risk factors for NSCLC were analyzed with binary logistic regression.
Results: Compared to healthy controls, the levels of MAR and NPHR in NSCLC patients were elevated. MAR and NPHR were related to clinicopathologic characteristics and increased significantly along with the progression of NSCLC. The area under the curve (AUC) for 95% confidence interval (95% CI) of MAR and NPHR in the diagnosis of NSCLC was 0.812 (0.769– 0.854) and 0.724 (0.675– 0.774), respectively. The combination of MAR, NPHR, and CEA achieved the highest diagnostic utility compared to each individually or combined markers (AUC, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.824– 0.896; sensitivity, 72.8%; specificity, 87.3%). Further analysis showed that MAR combined with NPHR presented the potential to detect early-stage (IA–IIB) NSCLC (AUC, 0.794; 95% CI, 0.743– 0.845; sensitivity, 55.1%; specificity, 87.7%). The result indicated that MAR and NPHR might be risk factors for NSCLC.
Conclusion: MAR and NPHR could be novel and effective auxiliary indexes in the detection of NSCLC, especially when combined with CEA.
Keywords: diagnosis, non-small cell lung cancer, monocyte-to-albumin ratio, neutrophil percentage-to-hemoglobin ratio