Prognostic role of the combination of platelet count and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio in patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC) is an aggressive disease with poor prognosis; but has no established biomarkers on the order of human papilloma virus and p16 in oropharyngeal carcinoma. This study investigated pre-treatment serum markers, including the combination of platelet count and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (COP-NLR) as a prognosis predictor in patients with HPSCC treated in our hospital. We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records of 118 consecutive patients treated with curative intent at our hospital between 2007 and 2013. Of these 118 patients, we enrolled 100 patients for whom we had sufficient data to analyze relationships between clinico-laboratory characteristics and survival, including the prognostic significance of pre-treatment serum markers and previous reported clinical factors. Multivariate analysis of clinico-laboratory characteristics associated COP-NLR with cancer-specific survival, as were lymph node metastases. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-rank tests showed that the COP-NLR could stratify those patients into three independent groups (P = 0.003). COP-NLR might be a useful predictor of survival in patients with HPSCC.

Pretreatment combination of platelet counts and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio predicts survival of nasopharyngeal cancer patients receiving intensity-modulated radiotherapy

“…This scoring system may better reflect the cancer’s anatomic and biologic status. Previous studies have found significant differences in conventional tumor-related factors and other inflammation-based markers among cancer patients categorized into different COP-NLR groups 13–17. Additionally, a higher COP-NLR has consistently translated into poorer prognoses in a variety of cancers 13–17.…”

“…Previous studies have found significant differences in conventional tumor-related factors and other inflammation-based markers among cancer patients categorized into different COP-NLR groups 13–17. Additionally, a higher COP-NLR has consistently translated into poorer prognoses in a variety of cancers 13–17. COP-NLR may be better applied to the estimation of cancer survival than other inflammation-based markers because it is cost efficient and reproducible, it is readily estimated prior to treatment, and it can be used to stratify cancer patients into different risk subgroups by scoring the two separate parameters 13–17.…”

“…Similarly, the cutoff value for platelet count was 290.5×10 9 /L (sensitivity: 0.285; specificity: 0.767). The COP-NLR score we used was obtained from previous studies 13–15,17. Briefly, patients with elevated NLR (>3) and platelet count (>300×10 9 /L) were assigned a COP-NLR score of 2.…”

“…In non-metastatic NPC, unfavorable outcomes have been associated with elevated total neutrophil counts,8 lymphocyte counts,8 C-reactive protein to albumin ratio,9 lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio,10 Glasgow prognostic score,11 and decreased prognostic nutritional index 12. Recent studies have reported associations between a new cellular inflammation-based prognostic scoring system, combination of platelet count and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (COP-NLR), and survival in some aerodigestive tract cancers, including colorectal cancer13 and gastric cancer,14 esophageal cancer,15 non-small-cell lung cancer,16 and hypopharyngeal cancer 17. The predictive value of this COP-NLR scoring system has not been investigated in the context of NPC.…”

Cancer and Thrombosis: The Platelet Perspective

“…Furthermore, PLR has been found to be an independent predictor of venous thromboembolism in cancer patients (Ferroni et al, 2015). COmbination of Platelet count and Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (COP-NLR) (Ishizuka et al, 2013, 2014; Feng et al, 2014a; Zhang H. et al, 2015; Nakahira et al, 2016) and Neutrophil-Platelet Score (NPS) (Watt et al, 2015) are predictors of survival for several types of cancer. Notably, some scoring systems that include evaluation of platelet count or function have higher predictive value in certain cancers than tools not analyzing platelets (Feng et al, 2014b; Ferroni et al, 2015; Sanchez-Salcedo et al, 2016), indicating that platelets may play a key role in cancer development and have prognostic value.…”