Association of the postoperative white blood cells (WBC) count in peripheral blood after radical surgical treatment of left upper lobe non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with overall survival - single center results.

INTRODUCTION: The individual patient prognosis after radical surgery for Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) of left upper lobe remains still unclear. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the predictive value of elevated white blood cell count in peripheral blood as early indicator of postoperative NSCLC prognosis.

METHODS: A retrospective statistical analysis was performed studying patients subject to radical treatment of left upper lobe NSCLC in period of five years with subsequent one to three-year monitoring of morbidity and mortality of the patient population. The statistical ROC (Receiver Operating Characteristic) analysis of the WBC count in peripheral blood third day after the operation was used to evaluate the relationship with overall survival, with respect to patients surviving for at least 24 months.

RESULTS: Based on the results of the ROC analysis with a total area under the curve (AUC) of 0.67, it is possible to confirm that the WBC count established third day after the operation allows us to classify patients into groups according to the 24-month overall survival.

CONCLUSION: Our findings confirm the potential of using WBC count to improve current protocols to establish postoperative prognosis for NSCLC of the upper left lobe (Tab. 2, Fig. 1, Ref. 11).