Clinical significance of preoperative neutrophil lymphocyte ratio versus platelet lymphocyte ratio in patients with small cell carcinoma of the esophagus.

Recent studies have shown that the presence of systemic inflammation correlates with poor survival in various of cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic values of neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR) in patients with small cell carcinoma of the esophagus (SCCE). Preoperative NLR and PLR were evaluated in 43 patients with SCCE from January 2001 to December 2010. The prognostic significance of both markers was then determined by both uni- and multivariate analytical methods. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were also plotted to verify the accuracy of NLR and PLR for survival prediction. Patients with PLR ≥150 had significantly poorer (relapse-free survival) RFS and (overall survival) OS compared to patients with PLR <150. However, RFS or OS did not differ according to NLR categories (<3.5 and ≥3.5). The areas under the curve (AUC) indicated that PLR was superior to NLR as a predictive factor. The results of the present study conclude that PLR is superior to NLR as a predictive factor in patients with SCCE.