High pretreatment platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio is related to poor prognosis in the squamous cell carcinoma of the larynx and hypopharynx in male patients

Abstract

Background

There were heterogeneous or even conflicting data regarding the ability of platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for predicting the prognosis of laryngeal/hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (LHSCC). The discrepancies were found to be largely due to the cutoff value of PLR.

Aims

The aims of this study were to rationally select an optimal PLR cutoff value and to analyze the relationship between pretreatment PLR and the prognosis.

Methods

A total of 180 male patients were eligible for this retrospective study. We included another 180 healthy male individuals as controls. The relationship between PLR and age in patients and the controls was determined. The optimal cutoff values of PLR were identified. PLR value was then dichotomized into two categories, and the relationship between PLR and the clinicopathologic parameters were calculated. Kaplan–Meier curves were used to evaluate the overall survival (OS), and the association between PLR and the OS was analyzed.

Results

The linear regression analysis showed a positive correlation between age and PLR in the control group, but not the patients. The optimal cutoff value of PLR was 112.5. The high PLR value group of patients exhibited significantly decreased OS. PLR was related to prognosis, as revealed by the univariate Cox regression.

Conclusion

Patients with LHSCC have abnormal high PLR, and a high pretreatment PLR portends adverse survival.

Chinese abstract

背景：关于血小板与淋巴细胞比率（PLR）是否能够预测喉/下咽鳞状细胞癌（LHSCC）预后, 存在着有异议的甚至矛盾的数据。差异主要是由于PLR的临界值。

目的：本研究的目的是合理选择最佳的PLR临界值, 并分析治疗前PLR和预后之间的关系。

方法：共180名男性患者符合这项回顾性研究要求。还招纳了180名健康男性作为对照。确定了PLR患者和对照组与年龄的关系。确定了PLR的最佳临界值。然后将PLR值分为两类, 并计算了PLR与临床病理参数之间的关系。 Kaplan–Meier曲线用于评估总生存期（OS）, 并分析了PLR与OS之间的相关性。

结果：线性回归分析显示, 对照组与年龄之间呈正相关, 而患者不是如此。 PLR的最佳临界值为112.5。高PLR值的患者表现出明显降低的OS。单变量Cox回归分析显示, PLR与预后相关。

结论：LHSCC患者的PLR异常高, 治疗前PLR较高预示着生存几率不佳。

Keywords:

• Laryngeal and hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma
• platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio
• cutoff value
• overall survival

Acknowledgment

We thank the statistician Biyun Xu, for her helpful discussions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nanjing Medical Science and Technique Development Foundation [grant number QRX17012], [grant number QRX17052].