Does systemic immune inflammation index have predictive value in gastric cancer prognosis?

Some studies have reported that the systemic immune inflammatory index (SII) and neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) provide predictive data on prognosis in gastric cancer patients. In the present study, it was aimed to examine the diagnostic and prognostic values of SII and NLR in gastric cancer.

A total of 152 patients, operated with the diagnosis of gastric cancer and followed up in the General Surgery Department of our hospital between January 2012 and April 2018, and 152 healthy controls were included in the study.

The mean SII (989±685) and the mean NLR (3.9±5.2) were significantly higher in gastric cancer patients than the healthy control group (433±203 and 1.9±0.8, respectively) (p<0.001 for both). In the receiver operating characteristic analyzes, a threshold value of 892 for SII had a sensitivity of 66.7% and a specificity of 62.7% in terms of predicting 5-year survival (AUC: 0.637; p=0.076; LB: 0.475; UB: 0.799; CI 95%). The 5-year survival rate was found to be significantly higher in those with a SII of above 892 than those with a SII of 892 and below (p=0.026). The 5-year mortality risk was 0.67-fold lower in those with SII above 892 (p=0.111; 95% CI 0.4-1.1).

The present study findings show that SII and NLR are far from providing reliable data on gastric cancer prognosis.