Available online 5 August 2022, 104588

Present study investigated the predictive effects of multiple neutrophil-associated prognostic markers, including tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs), neutrophil-to-T cell ratio (NTR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), on the prognosis of patients with stage I-IV non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Elevated TANs and NTR correlated with favorable overall survival, whereas high NLR predicted poor overall survival and disease-free survival.

Neither intratumoural nor stromal TANs were significantly associated with peripheral NLR level, suggesting that they independently and oppositely predicted the prognosis of patients with NSCLC.

Increasing evidence indicates that neutrophil-associated prognostic markers, such as, tumor-associated neutrophils (TANs), neutrophil-to-T cell ratio (NTR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), are strongly correlated with the survival of NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer). However, either the association or the difference in their predictive efficacies remains unknown. To this aim, we investigated the influence of intratumoural TANs and peripheral NLR on the clinical outcome of NSCLC patients using tumor tissues, peripheral blood index, and clinicopathological data of 133 patients diagnosed with NSCLC. Additionally, Kendall correlation analysis was performed to identify the association between TANs and NLR. Our results revealed that intratumoural TANs was effective prognostic factor for favorable overall survival (OS), but were not associated with disease-free survival (DFS) in the subgroup analysis of 84 postoperative patients and PFS in 49 non-resectable NSCLC patients. Elevated NTR also indicated favorable prognosis, with high intratumoural NTR being correlated with prolonged OS and high stromal NTR being correlated with prolonged DFS. In contrast, peripheral NLR predicted dismal OS and DFS of patients receiving curative surgery. Furthermore, neither intratumoural nor stromal TANs were found to be associated with NLR, indicating that they were independent inflammatory indexes in predicting the prognosis of NSCLC. In conclusion, we discovered that TANs and NLR independently and oppositely predicted the clinical outcome of NSCLC patients, providing new sights on the role of neutrophil in tumor biology and survival prediction.

non-small cell lung cancer

tumor-associated neutrophils

neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio

prognostic factors

© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.