Background/aims: The association between platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and survival with response rates were evaluated in metastatic gastric cancer (MGC).
Patients and methods: MGC patients on firstline modified docetaxel/cisplatinum/5-fluorourasil [mDCF; docetaxel 60 mg/m2 (days 1-5), cisplatin 60 mg/m2 (day 1), 5FU 600 mg/m2 (days 1-5), q3w] were evaluated retrospectively. The cutoff values were 160 for PLR and 2.5 for NLR. Progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated for group I (PLR >160), group II (PLR ≤ 160), group III (NLR ≥ 2.5), group IV (NLR < 2.5), group V (PLR > 160 and NLR ≥ 2.5), group VI (PLR ≤ 160 and NLR <2.5), and group VII [VIIa (PLR > 160 and NLR < 2.5) and VIIb (PLR ≤160 and NLR ≥ 2.5)].
Results: One hundred and nine MGC patients were evaluated for basal hematological parameters and survival analysis, retrospectively. Most of the patients were male in their fifties with grade III adenocarcinoma (62.9%) and liver metastasis (46.7%). Patients with PLR > 160 and/or NLR ≥ 2.5 had significantly shorter PFS and OS (P = 0.04, 0.01, 0.019, and P = 0.003, 0.002, 0.000, respectively).
Conclusion: High PLR (> 160) and/or NLR (≥ 2.5) seem to be poor prognostic factors in MGC.