Background: Inflammatory cellular response is implicated in the pathogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC). Nevertheless, the dynamic effects of inflammatory index coNLR (neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio)-PLR (platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio) during chemotherapy remain elusive.
Methods: The baseline clinical data and laboratory parameters of 480 CRC patients who received palliative resection of primary tumors and FOLFOX-based chemotherapy from January 2007 to January 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic curves were plotted to obtain the predictive NLR and PLR values, and to calculate the coNLR-PLR score. The Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate the rates of recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS), and the Cox proportional hazards model was employed for analysis.
Results: The dynamic cut-off values of NLR during four periods of chemotherapy were 3.029, 2.466, 2.102 and 1.795, respectively, and those of PLR were 216.438, 187.572, 169.027 and 174.368, respectively. A higher coNLR-PLR was significantly associated with lower rates of RFS and OS (P <0.05). Both univariate and multivariate analyses showed that coNLR-PLR was a significant independent prognostic factor for RFS and OS (P <0.05).
Conclusions: CoNLR-PLR was a significant prognostic predictor for CRC patients who received FOLFOX-based chemotherapy. Evaluating this index can accurately predict the clinical treatment outcomes after chemotherapy.
Keywords: colorectal cancer, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, FOLFOX-based chemotherapy, coNLR-PLR