Prognostic scores in laryngeal cancer

Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2022 Jul;279(7):3705-3715. doi: 10.1007/s00405-021-07233-2. Epub 2022 Feb 2.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the utility of various pre-treatment prognostic scoring systems for overall survival (OS) in laryngeal cancer, including neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), modified Glasgow Prognostic Score (mGPS) and systemic immune-inflammatory index (SIII).

Methods: We undertook a retrospective 5-year study of 220 patients with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma undergoing active treatment.

Results: On multivariate analysis, low NLR (≤ 2.415, p = 0.001, OR 3.851), low PLR (≤ 269.855, p = 0.002, OR 5.520), high LMR (> 2.225, p < 0.001, OR 0.458) and low SIII (≤ 1144.465, p = 0.003, OR 3.673) were significantly associated with improved OS, accounting for confounding factors of tumour subsite, T-stage and performance status. C-reactive protein (CRP) alone (p = 0.264) and mGPS (p = 0.350) were not significantly associated with OS.

Conclusions: NLR, PLR, LMR and SIII represent inexpensive, easily obtainable adjuvant decision-making tools which could help tailor individualised treatment regimes. Further investigation into the utility of combination scores and the role of different laryngeal subsites may be of interest.

Keywords: Laryngeal cancer; Lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio; Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio; Prognostic score.

MeSH terms

  • Head and Neck Neoplasms* / pathology
  • Humans
  • Laryngeal Neoplasms* / pathology
  • Lymphocytes / pathology
  • Neutrophils / pathology
  • Prognosis
  • Retrospective Studies