The effect of peripheral blood values on prognosis of patients with locally advanced gastric cancer before treatment

We aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of neutrophil, lymphocyte, platelet, mean platelet value (MPV), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with locally advanced gastric cancer (LAGC). One hundred sixty-eight patients with LAGC who had been followed-up between 2004 and 2008 were included in present study. The results of hematological (platelet, lymphocyte, neutrophil and MPV) and biochemical (uric acid and LDH) parameters were evaluated before treatment. NLR was divided into two groups as <2.56 and ≥2.57 and PLR was also divided into two groups as ≤160 and >160. Platelet counts and lymphocyte counts were also divided into two groups; ≤300.000/mm3 and >300.000/mm3, and <1,500/mm3 and ≥1,500/mm3, respectively. Results were evaluated with Kaplan–Meier and Long-rank tests. The mean age of patients at diagnosis was 60.1 ± 12.1 and 114 of patients (67.8%) were male. For 168 patients, 48 months overall survival (OS) rate was 45.2% and the median OS was 39 months (range 33–44). In patients whose PLR was less than 160 (n = 54), the median OS was 45 months (range 38–52) and also for cases whose PRL was greater than 160 (n = 114), the median OS was 27 months (range 22–32) (p = 0.006). While for fifty patients whose lymphocyte counts were less than 1,500, the median OS was 27 months (range 21–33), in cases with high lymphocyte counts (≥1,500) (n = 118), it was 41 months (range 35–48) (p = 0.03). The median OS was 41 (range 34–48) and 30 (range 23–37) months in two platelets groups, respectively (p = 0.24). However, in the patients whose NLR was less than 2.56 (n = 107), median OS was better than with cases whose NLR was greater than or equal to 2.56 (42 vs. 27 months). Routine peripheral blood counts may be useful prognostic factor for evaluating the accuracy of risk stratification in patients with radically resected gastric cancer Our results need to be confirmed by study including larger sample size in future.