Prognostic significance of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios in large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.

OBJECTIVES: Large cell neuroendocrine carcinomas (LCNECs) are rare neuroendocrine pulmonary malignancies with poor survival. Towards the goal of identifying a useful prognostic marker for LCNEC, we examined the prognostic significance of the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in LCNEC patients after complete resection. The NLR is a potential predictive indicator in other cancers and can be easily determined at low cost.

METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the perioperative clinical and laboratory data of patients who underwent complete resection for LCNEC between 1995 and 2014. Correlations between the preoperative NLR and clinicopathological parameters were determined to assess its prognostic significance.

RESULTS: Our study consisted of 26 patients, most of whom were men (88.5%) with a median age of 68.8 years. The median follow-up time was 54.4 months. Univariate analysis identified 3 clinically significant overall survival predictors: serum albumin level [≥4.0 g/dL (5-year overall survival rate; 80.0%) vs. <4.0 g/dL (30.0%), p = 0.048], pathological T stage [T1 and T2 (79.6%) vs. T3 and T4 (0%), p = 0.001], and preoperative NLR [<1.7 (90.9%) vs. ≥1.7 (51.7%), p = 0.012]. In a multivariate analysis, the NLR was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival (hazard ratio 8.559, 95% confidence interval 1.783-80.230, p = 0.011).

CONCLUSIONS: The preoperative NLR inversely correlates with post-resection survival rates in patients with LCNEC and thus is a viable prognostic marker in LCNEC.