Chronological Changes in Neutrophil/lymphocyte Ratio in Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients Treated with Nivolumab: a Report of Nine Cases

Predictive value of immunotherapy-induced inflammation indexes: dynamic changes in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors

BACKGROUND

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have achieved substantial advancements in clinical care. However, there is no strong evidence for identified biomarkers of ICIs in NPC.

METHODS

In this retrospective study, 284 patients were enrolled into a training or validation cohort. Inflammatory indexes based on peripheral blood parameters were evaluated, including the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), the platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), the lymphocyte-to-C-reactive protein ratio (LCR), and the lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR). The optimum cut-off value for patient stratification was identified using X-tile. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox's proportional regression analyses were used to identify prognostic factors.

RESULTS

Immunotherapy significantly changed the levels of SII, NLR, PLR, LCR and LMR in NPC patients. Patients with lower SII, NLR, and PLR, as well as those with higher LCR and LMR, before immunotherapy had superior PFS (all p < 0.05). Moreover, PFS in the decreased SII, reduced NLR and increased LMR group was significantly longer than in the opposite group (all p < 0.05). Both univariate and multivariate analyses validated that baseline SII and LMR, and the immunotherapy-related SII reduction and LMR elevation were independent prognostic factors for PFS in advanced NPC patients receiving ICIs.

CONCLUSIONS

Immune checkpoint inhibitor treatments significantly changed the levels of SII, NLR, PLR, LCR and LMR in NPC patients treated with immunotherapy. A lower baseline SII and a higher baseline LMR, and a reduction in SII and an elevation in LMR after immunotherapy are favorable factors for predicting survival among advanced NPC patients.

A Composite Biomarker of Derived Neutrophil–Lymphocyte Ratio and Platelet–Lymphocyte Ratio Correlates With Outcomes in Advanced Gastric Cancer Patients Treated With Anti-PD-1 Antibodies

Background

The highly heterogeneous characteristics of GC may limit the accuracy of a single biomarker for screening populations benefiting from immunotherapy. However, the combination of multiple indicators can provide more directed information for the detection of potential immune benefit subgroups. At present, there are no recognized complex indexes to identify advanced GC (AGC) in patients who likely benefited from immunotherapy. The objective of this research is to explore whether the composite biomarker of derived neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (dNLR) and platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR) can be used as a reliable prognostic factor for the survival of AGC patients receiving immunotherapy.

Methods

From December 2014 to May 2021, a total 238 AGC patients at a single Center were included in this retrospective cohort research study. The cutoff value of dNLR was obtained by the ROC curves to predict the disease progression rate at the 8th month and the cutoff value of PLR was estimated by the median value. The cutoff values of dNLR and PLR were 1.95 and 163.63, respectively. The high levels of dNLR (≥1.95) and PLR (≥163.63) were considered to be risk factors. Based on these two risk factors, patients were categorized into 3 groups: the risk factor number for the “good” group was 0, that for the “intermediate” group was 1, and that for the “poor” group was 2. The subjects were divided into two groups: dNLR/PLR-good and dNLR/PLR-intermediate/poor.

Results

Of the 238 patients, the median overall survival (mOS) and progression-free survival (mPFS) were 12.5 and 4.7 months, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that the good dNLR/PLR group was independently associated with better prognosis. The intermediate/poor dNLR/PLR group was independently correlated with an over 1.4 times greater risk of disease progression (4.1 months vs. 5.5 months; p = 0.016) and an over 1.54 times greater risk of death (11.1 months vs. 26.3 months; p = 0.033) than the good dNLR/PLR group. However, no clear differences in the disease control rate (DCR) and overall response rate (ORR) were observed between the intermediate/poor dNLR/PLR group and the good dNLR/PLR group (51.5% vs. 56.3%, 26.3% vs. 29.6%; p = 0.494, p = 0.609).

Conclusion

Our study firstly verifies that the composite biomarker of dNLR and PLR is an independent prognostic factor affecting survival of advanced AGC patients receiving immunotherapy. It may be difficult for patients with the intermediate/poor dNLR/PLR group to benefit from immunotherapy.

Preoperative lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio is the most predictive inflammatory response marker of survival in gastric cancer

PURPOSE

Systemic inflammatory responses play a key role in cancer progression, and detecting the predictive inflammatory response markers is needed. The present study explored inflammatory response markers capable of predicting survival in patients with gastric cancer.

METHODS

We enrolled 264 patients, who underwent curative gastrectomy for clinical stage (cStage) I-III gastric cancer between 2012 and 2015. The cut-off point of eight preoperative inflammatory response markers was determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The marker with the highest Harrell's concordance index (C-index) was adopted for subsequent univariate and multivariate analyses using the Cox proportional-hazards model.

RESULTS

Among eight representative inflammatory response markers, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR; cut-off point, 4.60) achieved the highest C-index (0.633). The 5-year survival rate was significantly worse in patients with LMR < 4.60 than in those with LMR ≥ 4.60 (67.5% versus 89.0%, P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, LMR < 4.60 was identified as an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio: 2.372; 95% confidence interval: 1.266-4.442; P = 0.007).

CONCLUSION

In this study, LMR had the strongest ability to predict the survival of patients with gastric cancer among other inflammatory response markers, with lower LMRs being associated with poor survival following curative gastrectomy.