Role of inflammatory blood parameters from complete blood count in predicting ovarian follicular density in cancer patients undergoing ovarian tissue cryopreservation.

Abstract

Background: Inflammation is a key feature of neoplastic diseases, especially cancer. Predicting follicular density (FD) in ovarian cortical tissue is essential for evaluating ovarian tissue cryopreservation (OTC) outcomes in fertility preservation. However, to date, no studies have explored the role of inflammatory markers in predicting FD in OTC patients. This study aims to investigate the relationship between blood inflammatory parameters and FD in this population.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study on 101 OTC patients. The primary goal was to assess whether parameters from Complete Blood Count (CBC) that include White Blood Cells (WBC), absolute neutrophil count, absolute lymphocyte count, Neutrophil/Lymphocyte Ratio (NLR), Mean Platelet Volume (MPV), Platelet Count (PC), MPV/PC and the Platelet/Lymphocyte Ratio (PLR) could predict FD. We also evaluated the impact of factors such as oncological diagnosis, smoking, Body Mass Index (BMI), and germline BRCA mutations. Spearman's correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney test were used for analysis.

Results: Significant correlations were found in patients aged between 27 and 31. In this group, NLR was inversely correlated with FD (Rho = -0.374, p = 0.032), while lymphocyte count (Rho = 0.371, p = 0.034) and MPV/PC (Rho = 0.365, p = 0.037) were positively correlated with FD. An inverse correlation was also found between PLR and FD (Rho = -0.38, p = 0.028).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that NLR, lymphocyte count, MPV/PC and PLR may be useful in predicting FD in a subgroup of OTC patients. Larger studies are needed to confirm these results.