Jie Chen1, Yuqin Pan2, Bangshun He2, Houqun Ying3, Huiling Sun1, Qiwen Deng2, Xian Liu2, Shukui Wang2. 1. Department of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University; Central Laboratory, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. 2. Central Laboratory, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. 3. Central Laboratory, Nanjing First Hospital, Nanjing Medical University; Medical College, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
Abstract
CONTEXT: Recently, increasing studies investigated the association between inflammation parameter such as neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the prognosis of cancers. However, the clinical and prognostic significance of NLR in breast cancer remains controversial. AIM: This meta-analysis was conducted to establish the overall accuracy of the NLR test in the diagnosis of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using PubMed and Web of Science. Six studies dating up to July 2014 with 2267 patients were enrolled in the present study. STATA 11.0 software (STATA Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) was selected for data analysis. In order to evaluate the association between NLR and overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), recurrence-free survival or cancer-specific survival, the hazard ratios (HRs), and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted. RESULTS: Subgroup analyses showed that NLR was a strong prognostic factor for OS in multivariate analysis (HR = 2.81, 95% CI = 2.13-3.71, PH = 0.992) and without metastasis (HR = 1.45, 95% CI = 0.37-5.66, PH < 0.001). Elevated NLR was associated with a high risk for DFS in subgroups of multivariate analysis (HR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.67-2.80, PH = 0.977) and mixed metastasis (HR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.38-3.30, PH = 0.84). CONCLUSION: In summary, NLR may be considered as a predictive factor for patients with breast cancer.
CONTEXT: Recently, increasing studies investigated the association between inflammation parameter such as neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the prognosis of cancers. However, the clinical and prognostic significance of NLR in breast cancer remains controversial. AIM: This meta-analysis was conducted to establish the overall accuracy of the NLR test in the diagnosis of breast cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted using PubMed and Web of Science. Six studies dating up to July 2014 with 2267 patients were enrolled in the present study. STATA 11.0 software (STATA Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) was selected for data analysis. In order to evaluate the association between NLR and overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), recurrence-free survival or cancer-specific survival, the hazard ratios (HRs), and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted. RESULTS: Subgroup analyses showed that NLR was a strong prognostic factor for OS in multivariate analysis (HR = 2.81, 95% CI = 2.13-3.71, PH = 0.992) and without metastasis (HR = 1.45, 95% CI = 0.37-5.66, PH < 0.001). Elevated NLR was associated with a high risk for DFS in subgroups of multivariate analysis (HR = 2.16, 95% CI = 1.67-2.80, PH = 0.977) and mixed metastasis (HR = 2.13, 95% CI = 1.38-3.30, PH = 0.84). CONCLUSION: In summary, NLR may be considered as a predictive factor for patients with breast cancer.
Entities:
Keywords:
Breast cancer; inflammation parameter; prognosis