Prognostic role of NLR in urinary cancers: a meta-analysis

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 3; p. e92079
• Main Authors: Wei, Yong, Jiang, Ya-Zhi, Qian, Wen-Hui
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 18-03-2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Analysis; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Bioindicators; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - analysis; Bladder; Bladder cancer; Cancer; Cancer patients; Cancer research; Confidence intervals; Development and progression; Diabetes; Disease; Ethnicity; European Continental Ancestry Group; Female; Hospitals; Humans; Inflammation; Inflammation - diagnosis; Inflammation - ethnology; Inflammation - mortality; Inflammation - pathology; Kidney cancer; Leukocyte Count; Lymphocyte Count; Lymphocytes; Lymphocytes - pathology; Male; Medical ethics; Medical prognosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Meta-analysis; Metastasis; Neutrophils; Neutrophils - pathology; Physical Sciences; Prognosis; Proportional Hazards Models; Prostate cancer; Research and Analysis Methods; Studies; Survival Analysis; Urinary bladder; Urologic Neoplasms - diagnosis; Urologic Neoplasms - ethnology; Urologic Neoplasms - mortality; Urologic Neoplasms - pathology; Urology; Urothelial carcinoma
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092079

Recently, many studies explored the role of inflammation parameters such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the prognosis of urinary cancers, but the results were not consistent.
We carried out a meta-analysis of published studies to assess the prognostic value of NLR in patients with urinary cancers. Hazard ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association of NLR and OS and RFS/CSS.
The pooled results showed that high NLR was a poor predictor for OS with HR of 1.81 (95%CI: 1.48-2.21; Pheterogeneity = 0.005) and RFS/CSS (HR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.65-2.6; Pheterogeneity = 0.849). Subgroup analyses revealed that high NLR yielded a worse OS in RCC (HR = 1.9, 95%CI: 1.47-2.45; Pheterogeneity = 0.003) and a poor RFS/CSS in RCC (HR = 1.83, 95%CI: 1.35-2.48; Pheterogeneity = 0.709), bladder cancer (HR = 2.2, 95%CI: 1.27-3.8; Pheterogeneity = 0.447) and urothelial carcinoma (HR = 2.58, 95%CI: 1.66-4.01; Pheterogeneity = 0.784).
Our results showed that NLR could act as a significant biomarker in the prognosis of urinary cancers.