The ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes and the phenotypes of neutrophils in patients with early gastric cancer.

We examined 55 patients (40 male, 15 female) who were diagnosed from 1987 to 1991 as having early gastric cancer (EGC) stage I according to the general rules of classification of the Japanese Research Society for Gastric Cancer. Of the 55 patients, 42 (30 male, 12 female) were alive in April 1992. The prognosis correlated well with the ratio of neutrophils to lymphocytes (N/L ratio) but not with the total number of white blood cells in the peripheral blood. The patients were divided into two groups according to their N/L ratio. Of the 29 patients with an N/L ratio less than 2, 27 were alive in 1992, whereas only 15 of the 26 patients with an N/L ratio of 2 or more were alive (chi2 analysis, P=0.0022). We further examined the phenotypes of neutrophils from 29 other patients with EGC at the time of diagnosis before surgical operation. These patients were divided into two groups: 17 patients with a low N/L ratio (less than 2) and 12 patients with a high N/L ratio (2 or more). CD10 and CD35 expressions on neutrophils from the patients with a low N/L ratio were lower than those from the patients with a high N/L ratio. The N/L ratio correlated well with both CD10 and CD35 expression, whereas no correlation was observed between the numbers of neutrophils and the expression of these phenotypes. The respiratory burst of neutrophils from the patients with a high N/L ratio was higher than that of neutrophils from the patients with a low N/L ratio, though there was no correlation in the phagocytic activity between both groups. It was thus suggested that the heterogeneity of neutrophils is, at least partly, related to the prognosis of patients with EGC.