Pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio as predictor of survival for patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND The outcomes of patients with metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) differ between individuals. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on survival in patients with metastatic NPC. METHODS A total of 229 patients with disseminated NPC were evaluated. The effects of pretreatment peripheral blood neutrophil, lymphocyte, and NLR on survival were examined using the proportional hazards regression model to estimate hazard ratio (HR). The relationship between short-term treatment efficacy and pretreatment NLR was analyzed using the chi-square test. RESULTS The pretreatment elevated neutrophil count (p = .020), percentage of neutrophil (p < .001), and NLR (p = .002) were statistically significantly associated with a poor prognosis. The cutoff value selected for NLR was 3.6. The median survival time was 15.3 months for the high-NLR group and was 23.5 months for the low-NLR group (p < .001). CONCLUSION NLR is a prognosticator in patients with metastatic NPC.