Prognostic value of systemic inflammatory response markers in cervical cancer

Abstract

We investigated the association between preoperative ratios of inflammatory markers and the prognosis in patients with invasive cervical cancer (CC). In this single-centre study, we retrospectively enrolled 163 CC patients who underwent radical hysterectomy between February 2008 and October 2018. Among the evaluated ratios, a high neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (N/L) was significantly associated with deep stromal invasion and tumour size larger than 2 cm, whereas a high M/L was significantly related to advanced-stage CC (IB3–IIIC2), lymphatic metastasis (total) and pelvic lymph node metastasis (p= .002, p= .046 and p= .046, respectively). The neutrophil count plus monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (NM/L) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (P/L) were significantly higher in patients with deep stromal invasion, advanced stage and tumour size larger than 2 cm (p=.01, p=.044 and p=.007; p=.004, p=.005 and p=.003, respectively). In the multivariate analysis, high NM/L (>168) was associated with a statistically significant hazard ratio of 3.04 (95% CI: (1.38–6.72); p=.006) for recurrence and 9.05 (95% CI: (2.10–38.99); p=.003) for death. Both stage and NM/L are independent prognostic factors that are significantly associated with recurrence and overall survival in CC.

Impact Statement

• What is already known on this subject? Previous studies suggested that there is a relationship between inflammation and the formation, development and progression of cancer. However, the relationship between cervical cancer (CC) and inflammatory blood parameters is incompletely understood.

• What do the results of this study add? This study investigated the relationship between systemic blood inflammatory ratios and clinicopathological patient characteristics and disease outcomes in CC.

• What are the implications of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? According to this study, systemic blood inflammatory ratios may help predict the prognosis and survival of patients with CC.

Keywords:

• Cervical cancer
• inflammatory markers
• lymphocyte
• neutrophil
• platelet
• gynaecological oncology

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no competing interest.