Background: The lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), which reflects the tumor-infiltrating immune cell status and host immunity, has been reported as a prognostic marker in various cancers. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the role of the LMR as a prognostic marker in predicting the survival of patients with anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC). Methods: This study retrospectively included 35 ATC patients with available complete blood cell count data. The primary outcome was the overall survival (OS) of patients with ATC. Results: There were no significant differences between the LMR of the baseline and that of the follow-up complete blood cell count data (p = 0.53). The patients were divided into two groups based on their baseline LMR: a low LMR group (<4; n = 23, 66%) and a high LMR group (‡4; n = 12, 34%). The proportion of cervical lymph node metastasis in the low LMR group was significantly higher than that in the high LMR group (p = 0.021). The OS curves were significantly different based on the LMR values, and the median OS of the low and high LMR groups were 3.0 and 9.5 months, respectively (p = 0.004). In multivariate analysis, a low LMR was also an independent risk factor for all-cause mortality in patients with ATC (hazard ratio = 2.55 [confidence interval 1.08-6.00], p = 0.032) after adjusting for sex, tumor size, and distant metastasis. Conclusions: A low LMR is associated with poor survival in patients with ATC. The LMR could be a simple and stable prognostic biomarker reflecting host immunity in patients with ATC. Further studies are needed to confirm the prognostic role of the LMR in ATC.
Major clinical challenges exist with differentiated thyroid cancers with distant metastases or rare but aggressive types, such as poorly differentiated thyroid carcinomas and anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. The precise characterization of the mutational profile in these advanced thyroid cancers is crucial. Samples were collected from primary tumors and distant metastases of 64 patients with distant metastases from differentiated thyroid cancer, poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma, or anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Targeted next-generation sequencing was performed with 50 known thyroid-cancer-related genes. Of the 82 tissues, 63 were from primary tumors and 19 from distant metastases. The most prevalent mutation observed from the primary tumors was TERT promoter mutation (56%), followed by BRAF (41%) and RAS (24%) mutations. TP3 was altered by 11%. Mutations in histone methyltransferases, SWI/SNF subunit–related genes, and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway-related genes were present in 42%, 12%, and 22%, respectively. When the mutational status was analyzed in 15 matched pairs of thyroid tumors and their matched distant metastases and one pair of distant metastases with two distinct sites, the concordance was high. A similar frequency of mutations in TERT promoter (58%) and BRAF (42%) as well as histone methyltransferases (37%), SWI/SNF subunits (10%), and PI3K/AKT/mTOR pathway (26%) were noted. The same main, early and late mutations were practically always present in individual primary tumor–metastasis pairs. Enrichment of TERT promoter, BRAF, and RAS mutations were detected in highly advanced thyroid cancers with distant metastasis. The genetic profiles of primary thyroid tumors and their corresponding distant metastases showed a high concordance.
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