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Association between neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio, socioeconomic status, and ethnic minority with treatment outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma

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Abstract

Background

Patients with lower socioeconomic status (SES), ethnic minorities and elevated neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) have been suggested to have worse outcomes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, how changes in NLR after intervention relate to survival has not been elucidated.

Objectives

We evaluated the association of NLR with overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) in a large institutional cohort of HCC.

Methods

We reviewed all patients diagnosed with HCC between 2005–2016. The association between elevated NLR (> 4) and survival was examined with univariable and multivariable Cox regression.

Results

We identified 991 patients diagnosed with HCC. Lower SES and Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black ethnicity were significantly associated with lower NLR (p = 0.015 and 0.019, respectively). Elevated NLR, but not SES or ethnicity, was an independent predictor of worse OS (HR = 1.66, p < 0.001) and PFS (HR = 1.25, p = 0.032). The median OS in patients with elevated NLR was 8 months, compared to 42 months in patients with normal NLR. Patients with elevated NLR unresponsive to treatment and those with NLR that became elevated after treatment had significantly worse 3-year OS (47% and 44%, respectively), compared to patients whose NLR remained normal or normalized after treatment (72% and 80%, respectively; p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Our study showed that elevated NLR, but not SES or ethnicity, is an independent prognostic marker for OS and PFS in patients with HCC. NLR trends following intervention were highly predictive of outcome. NLR is easy to obtain and would provide valuable information to clinicians in evaluating prognosis and monitoring response after procedures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine (Oncology), Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

    Yifei Zhang, Santiago Thibaud & Andreas Kaubisch

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 111 210th Street, Bronx, NY, 10467, USA

    N. Patrik Brodin, Nitin Ohri, Madhur Garg, Chandan Guha & Rafi Kabarriti

  3. Department of Surgery, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA

    Milan Kinkhabwala

Authors
  1. Yifei Zhang
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  2. N. Patrik Brodin
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  3. Nitin Ohri
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  4. Santiago Thibaud
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  5. Andreas Kaubisch
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  6. Milan Kinkhabwala
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  7. Madhur Garg
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  8. Chandan Guha
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  9. Rafi Kabarriti
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Correspondence to Rafi Kabarriti.

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Conflict of interest

Yifei Zhang, N. Patrik Brodin, Nitin Ohri, Santiago Thibaud, Andreas Kaubisch, Milan Kinkhabwala, Madhur Garg, Chandan Guha and Rafi Kabarriti declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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The study protocol has been approved by the institute’s committee on human research.

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Zhang, Y., Brodin, N.P., Ohri, N. et al. Association between neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio, socioeconomic status, and ethnic minority with treatment outcome in hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatol Int 13, 609–617 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12072-019-09965-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12072-019-09965-0

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