Preoperative hematologic markers as independent predictors of prognosis in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: neutrophil-lymphocyte versus platelet-lymphocyte ratio

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to investigate whether the preoperative hematologic markers, the platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), or the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) ratio are significant prognostic indicators in resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. METHODS: A total of 84 patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma over a 10-year period were identified from a retrospectively maintained database. RESULTS: The preoperative NLR was found to be a significant prognostic marker (P=.023), whereas PLR had no significant relationship with survival (P=.642) using univariate Cox survival analysis. The median overall survival in patients with an NLR of <= 3.0 (n = 55) was 13.7, 17.0 months in those with an NLR of 3.0 to 4.0 (n = 17) and 5.9 months in patients with a value of >4.0 (n = 12) (log rank, P=.016). The NLR retained its significance on multivariate analysis (P=.039) along with resection margin status (P=.001). CONCLUSION: The preoperative NLR represents a significant independent prognostic indicator in patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, whereas PLR does not. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.