[Analysis of the correlation between inflammatory parameters and clinical characteristics in oropharyngeal cancer...

Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) and the relationship between the clinical characteristics and pre-treatment inflammatory parameters such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), systemic inflammation response index (SII), and systemic inflammation response index (SIRI). Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 149 OPSCC patients treated in two tertiary hospitals, Shanxi Province Cancer Hospital and Shanxi Bethune Hospital, between January 2017 and January 2024, including 129 males and 20 females, aged from 37 to 84 years old. The patients were grouped based on HPV infection status (p16 expression), namely p16-positive group and p16-negative group, and statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the correlation between the inflammatory parameters and clinical factors such as clinical stage, treatment regimen, and prognosis in two groups. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 29.0 software. Results: In this cohort, 56.4%(84/149) of OPSCC patients were p16-positive. The total 1-year and 3-year survival rates were 87.0% and 66.5%, respectively. Analysis showed p16 status was an independent prognostic factor (HR=0.444, 95%CI: 0.206-0.957, P=0.038). No significant difference in prognosis was observed between p16-positive and p16-negative groups when NLR, PLR, and SII levels were elevated (all P>0.05). Pre-treatment SII levels were significantly higher in p16-positive patients compared to p16-negative patients (62.4% vs. 37.6%, χ²=8.021, P=0.005). Elevated pre-treatment PLR levels indicated a higher risk of lymph node metastasis (χ²=4.791, P=0.029). Conclusion: Elevated levels of NLR, PLR, and SII may attenuate the prognostic advantage of HPV-positive OPSCC. SII and PLR may play important roles in predicting HPV infection status and the risk of cervical lymph node metastasis in OPSCC patients.