Elevated Preoperative Platelet to Lymphocyte Ratio Indicates Poor Survival in Patients with Resected High-grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) is widely used as an inflammation-related cancer biomarker. However, since its prognostic importance in resected high-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSC) is still unknown, we investigated the association between PLR and the prognosis in resected HGSC in this study.

METHODS: Details of 103 patients with HGSC who underwent ovarian resection were collected in this retrospective study. Preoperative PLR was calculated based on platelet and lymphocyte count values. A χ2 test was used to analyze the relationship between PLR and clinical variables, a Kaplan-Meier curve and log rank analysis was used to evaluate overall survival, and multivariable analysis was used to analyze the prognostic factors.

RESULTS: The preoperative PLR median value (188.8) was used to divide patients into two groups: the high PLR group (PLR > 188.8) and low PLR group (PLR ≤ 188.8). A high PLR was significantly associated with a higher death rate (81.6% vs. 59.3%, p = 0.013) and a shorter median overall survival time (37 months vs. 58 months, p = 0.035) during follow-up (median length = 43 months). Multivariable data further demonstrated that a high PLR was related to a two-fold increase in risk of death (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.19, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.30 - 3.68, p = 0.003). In addition, the risk of a CA125 of > 640.0 U/mL was significantly greater in the high PLR group (odds ratio [OR]: 2.72, 95% CI: 1.18 - 6.27, p = 0.019). Multivariable analysis suggests that PLR was an independent prognostic factor for resected HGSC.

CONCLUSIONS: PLR has potential as a prognostic biomarker for predicting the survival of patients with resected HGSC.