Preoperative to postoperative change in neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio predict survival in colorectal cancer patients

Abstract

Aim: To evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative to postoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio changes (ΔNLR) in patients undergoing surgical resection for colorectal cancer. Patients & methods: Data of 135 such patients managed at the Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute were retrospectively analyzed. Clinicopathologic factors, overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) were assessed using Kaplan–Meier curves and Cox regression models. Results: In the multivariate analysis, preoperative NLR (p = 0.002) and ΔNLR (p = 0.037) independently predicted OS, but preoperative NLR (p = 0.141) and ΔNLR (p = 0.297) were not significant prognosticators for DFS. Conclusion: Our results demonstrated the prognostic value of the ΔNLR in predicting OS in patients undergoing surgical resection for colorectal cancer. However, ΔNLR could not predict DFS.