The prognostic role of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio and monocyte/lymphocyte ratio in advanced stage gastric cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: a single center experience

Objective: Several studies revealed that peripheral blood Neutrophil/Lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and Monocyte/Lymphocyte Ratio (MLR) were prognostic in various cancer types. However, there are no excessive information about the prognostic significance of NLR and MLR in patients with advanced gastric cancer. As a result, we examined whether NLR and/or MLR could be used as a prognostic marker to predict survival outcomes in patients with advanced gastric cancer receiving palliative chemotherapy. Method: We retrospectively analyzed 119 patients with gastric cancer receiving chemotherapy. We evaluated the relationship between potential prognostic factors and overall survival (OS) times using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression survival modelling. Results: The median overall survival of the patients was 6.9 (2.1-41.6) months. In univariate analysis, NLR (p< 0.001), ECOG performance status (p< 0.001), presence of liver metastases (p< 0.001) and presence of peritoneal metastases (p< 0.001) were found to be associated with survival. The multivariate survival model showed the high NLR (HR=1.59, 95% CI 1.6-2.40, p= 0.026), the patients with ECOG performance score 2-3 (HR=2.91, 95% CI 1.60-5.27, p