Pretreatment count of peripheral neutrophils, monocytes, and lymphocytes as independent prognostic factor in patients with head and neck cancer.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to analyze the prognostic value of pretreatment count of peripheral neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). METHODS Local, regional, and distant recurrence-free survival and disease-specific survival were analyzed according to the count of neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, and NLR. RESULTS We observed a decrease in disease-specific survival as the quartile category of neutrophils, monocytes, and NLR increased. In the case of lymphocytes, patients in the lower quartile had lower disease-specific survival. Considering the disease-specific survival as the dependent variable, a recursive partitioning analysis classified the patients according to the neutrophil and monocyte counts. CONCLUSION High pretreatment count of peripheral neutrophils and/or monocytes was independently related with worse prognosis in patients with HNSCC. Classification based on pretreatment neutrophil and monocyte counts enabled the identification of different prognostic profiles. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 219-226, 2017.