Pretreatment levels of peripheral neutrophils and lymphocytes as independent prognostic factors in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the counts and percentages of differential leukocytes as prognostic indicators in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

METHODS: This study consisted of 1410 cases identified from an established prospective cohort of 1533 patients with NPC between October 2005 and October 2007 in the Sun Yat-Sen University Cancer Center. Multivariate Cox proportional hazards analyses were applied.

RESULTS: A high percentage of lymphocyte was significantly associated with a favorable prognosis of NPC (highest vs lowest quartile, hazard ratio [HR], 95% confidence interval [CI] for overall and progression-free survival, HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.48-1.06; HR, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.43-0.86, respectively), whereas a high neutrophil percentage (HR, 1.62; 95% CI, 1.06-2.46; HR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.10-2.18, respectively), and a neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR; HR, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.04-2.39; HR, 1.68; 95% CI, 1.19-2.38, respectively), were significantly related to a poor prognosis of NPC.

CONCLUSION: Pretreatment NLR and percentages of lymphocyte and neutrophil are independent prognostic factors and may serve as clinically convenient and useful biomarkers for survival of patients with NPC.