A single center experience of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios (NRL) in determining the prognosis of nasopharyngeal cancer

Purpose: Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NRL) is an immunological parameter which indicates inflammatory response, as well as anti-tumor immunity and solid tumor recurrence. The most significant results of the NLR ratio related prognostic state of the patients were found in colorectal, and renal cancers. Our study will investigate whether this ratio could be a useful marker of progression free survival and prognosis in nasopharyngeal cancer patients (NPC). Methods: The study including 133 patients with valid samples diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma were evaluated retrospectively. We included only the patients diagnosed pathologically with non-metastatic, locally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma who were treated with induction chemotheraphy. Blood parameters and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios (NLR) were taken into account for interpretation. Results: The results indicated that the mean neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio was 2.78, showing high variance within the cohort. (0.5-30.5 confidence interval). Among this group, the distribution of the patients falling into each percentile of the NLR (which are 3.86 was found to be as follows: 24.8%, 25.6%, 24.8% and 24.8%.). PFS and OS rates were not istatistically significiant in each percentile of the NLR (p:0.86 and p:0.54). Conclusion:According to literature NLR was found not only an independent prognostic factor, also a predictor of response to chemoradiotherapy.Opposite to this , in our study NLR seems not to be a parameter to predict progression free survival and prognosis in nasopharyngeal carcinoma.