Prognostic significance of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in ovarian cancer: evidence from 4,910 patients

// Quan Zhou 1, 2 , Li Hong 2 , Man-Zhen Zuo 1 and Ze He 1 1 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, The People’s Hospital of Three Gorges University/The First People’s Hospital of Yichang, Yichang 443000, P. R. China 2 Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei 430060, P. R. China Correspondence to: Quan Zhou, email: zhouquan8519@163.com Keywords: neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, ovarian cancer, prognostic value Received: March 14, 2017 Accepted: July 12, 2017 Published: August 10, 2017 ABSTRACT Increasing evidence indicates that elevated neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are related with poor prognosis in various types of tumors. However, the prognostic role of NLR in patients with ovarian cancer (OC) remains controversial. Thus, the current meta-analysis aimed to investigate the prognostic role of NLR in patients with OC. A total of 16 studies with 4,910 patients were included. By pooling hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) and odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs from each study. The results demonstrated that elevated pretreatment NLR was significantly related to poor OS (HR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.27-1.77) and PFS (HR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.28-1.84) in patients with OC. Subgroup analyses was divided by ethnicity, sample size, histologic types, cut-off value of NLR, analysis method and NOS score, but the results did not showed any significant change the main results. This meta-analysis revealed that elevated pretreatment NLR might be a predicative factor of poor prognosis in OC patients.