The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prognostic values of pathological tumor size and preoperative blood-based inflammation biomarkers, including the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), in upper tract urothelial carcinoma (UTUC).
From 2007 to 2017, retrospective data of 449 patients with UTUC who underwent radical nephroureterectomy were assessed. Use of Kaplan-Meier and univariable/multivariable analyses evaluated the effect of preoperative blood-based inflammation biomarkers on overall (OS), cancer-specific (CSS), and progression-free survival (PFS) in pathological tumor sizes > and ≤3 cm.
Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that high-level NLR, PLR, or MLR had significantly shorter OS, CSS, and PFS for tumor sizes >3 cm (all P < .05), but not for ≤3 cm. For UTUCs with tumor sizes >3 cm, multivariable analyses showed simultaneously high-level PLR and MLR to be independent predicators of poor OS, CSS, and PFS (all P < .05). Moreover, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses revealed that the predictive accuracy of the combination of PLR and MLR for OS, CSS, and PFS with the area under the ROC curve of 0.836, 0.871, and 0.806, respectively, in tumor sizes >3 cm (all P < .001).
Our study demonstrated that a high-level PLR and MLR can serve as an independent predicator of worse outcomes in UTUCs with tumor sizes >3 cm. This combination can clinically help enhance the prognostic discrimination of UTUCs with tumor sizes >3 cm and further may guide physicians in selecting patients for postoperatively systemic chemotherapy.
Clinical genitourinary cancer. 2019 Dec 14 [Epub ahead of print]
Hau-Chern Jan, Che-Yuan Hu, Wen-Horng Yang, Chien-Hui Ou
Department of Urology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan., Department of Urology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan., Department of Urology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Department of Urology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan., Department of Urology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan; Department of Urology, College of Medicine, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan. Electronic address: .