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Updated: Mar 21, 2026
Neutrophil Isolation and Analysis to Determine their Role in Lymphoma Cell Sensitivity to Therapeutic Agents
Published on: March 25, 2016
Neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio has a prognostic value for patients with terminal cancer
Yoichi Nakamura1,2, Ryohei Watanabe3, Miwa Katagiri3
1Palliative Care Team, Toho University Ohashi Medical Center, 2-17-6 Ohashi, Meguroku, Tokyo, 1538515, Japan. you1mac@mac.com.
Background:
Determining prognosis in advanced cancer is of key importance. Various prognostic scores have been developed. However, they are often very complex. In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as an index to estimate survival in terminal cancer patients.
Methods:
NLR was calculated retrospectively based on blood tests performed at 3 months, 2 months, 4 weeks, 3 weeks, 2 weeks, 1 week, and within 3 days before death in 160 cancer patients (82 men, 78 women; age range, 33-99 years; mean age, 69.8 years).
Results:
NLR increased significantly with time (P < 0.0001). Mean NLR was significantly higher in patients who died within 4 weeks (29.82) than in those who lived more than 4 weeks (6.15). The NLR cutoff point was set at 9.21 according to receiver operating characteristic curve analysis (area under the curve, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.79-0.85). We inferred that life expectancy would be <4 weeks when NLR >9.21. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 65.6, 84.1, 90.6, and 51.1%, respectively. The positive and negative likelihood ratios were 4.125 and 0.409, respectively.
Conclusions:
NLR appears to be a useful and simple parameter to predict the clinical outcomes of patients with terminal cancer.
