Prognostic Significance of the Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Primary Liver Cancer: A Meta-Analysis

Tong-Chun Xue, Lan Zhang, Xiao-Yin Xie, Ning-Ling Ge, Li-Xin Li, Bo-Heng Zhang, Sheng-Long Ye and Zheng-Gang Ren

PLOS ONE, 2014, vol. 9, issue 5, 1-11

Abstract: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a useful biomarker that reflects systemic inflammation responses. However, the prognostic value of the NLR in patients with primary liver cancer (PLC) remains controversial. We performed a meta-analysis of 26 studies (comprising 4,461 patients) to evaluate the association between the pre-treatment NLR and clinical outcomes of overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with PLC. The correlation between NLR and tumor characteristics or other inflammation-related parameters was also assessed. Data were synthesized using the random-effects model of DerSimonian and Laird, and the hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to estimate effect size. Our analysis indicated that a high NLR predicted poor OS (HR, 2.102; 95% CI: 1.741–2.538) and DFS (HR, 2.474; 95% CI: 1.855–3.300) for PLC. A high NLR was associated with the presence of tumor vascular invasion (OR: 1.889, 95% CI: 1.487–2.400; p

Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0096072

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096072

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