Significance of the preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer

Table 1 Comparison of clinicopathological characteristics between high- and low-neutrophil-to-lymphocyte groups n (%)

Clinicopathological feature	n	High-NLR group	Low-NLR group	χ2	P value
Gender				0.163	0.686
Male	210	93 (44.3)	117 (55.7)
Female	81	38 (46.9)	43 (53.1)
Age				12.377	0.000
< 65 yr	142	49 (34.5)	93 (65.5)
≥ 65 yr	149	82 (55.0)	67 (45.0)
Tumor size				20.852	0.000
< 5 cm	143	45 (31.5)	98 (68.5)
≥ 5 cm	148	86 (58.1)	62 (41.9)
Differentiation degree
Middle and high differentiation	130	59 (45.4)	71 (54.6)	0.013	0.910
Low differentiation	161	72 (44.7)	89 (55.3)
T staging
T1	20	2 (10.0)	18 (90.0)	20.731	0.000
T2	29	13 (41.4)	16 (58.6)
T3	177	74 (41.8)	103 (58.2)
T4	65	42 (64.6)	23 (35.4)
N staging				4.185	0.242
N0	55	18 (32.7)	37 (67.3)
N1	127	60 (47.2)	67 (52.8)
N2	78	38 (48.7)	40 (51.3)
N3	31	15 (48.4)	16 (51.6)
TNM staging				11.363	0.003
Stage I	32	8 (25.0)	24 (75.0)
Stage II	123	49 (39.8)	74 (60.2)
Stage III	136	74 (54.4)	62 (45.6)
platelet counting				9.672	0.002
< 300 × 109/L	253	105 (41.5)	148 (58.5)
≥ 300 × 109/L	38	26 (68.4)	12 (31.6)
CEA				2.972	0.085
< 5 ng/mL	178	73 (41.0)	105 (59.0)
≥ 5 ng/mL	113	58 (51.3)	55 (48.7)

NLR: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen.

Table 2 Multivariate analysis of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio-associated risk factors

Clinicopathological feature	HR	95%CI	P value
Gender (M/F)	1.219	0.693-2.146	0.492
Age (yr)	1.036	1.014-1.059	0.002
Tumor size	2.690	1.584-4.565	0.000
Differentiation degree	0.966	0.575-1.622	0.895
T staging	1.269	0.705-2.287	0.427
N staging	0.743	0.453-1.219	0.239
TNM staging	1.732	0.680-4.409	0.249
Platelet counting	0.999	0.996-1.002	0.395
CEA	1.001	0.998-1.003	0.630

M/F: Male/female; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; HR: Hazard ratio.

Table 3 Univariate and multivariate survival analysis results

Clinicopathological feature	Univariate-analyzed P value	Multivariate analysis
		P value	HR (95%CI)
Gender	0.611
Male
Female
Age	0.000	0.096
< 65 yr			0.774 (0.573-1.046)
≥ 65 yr			1.000
Tumor size	0.000	0.122
< 5 cm			0.784 (0.576-1.067)
≥ 5 cm			1.000
Differentiation degree	0.108
Middle and high differentiation
Low differentiation
T staging	0.000	0.583
T1		0.898	0.879 (0.122-6.338)
T2		0.579	0.797 (0.358-1.776)
T3		0.170	0.739 (0.480-1.138)
T4			1.000
N staging	0.000	0.080
N0		0.303	0.622 (0.252-1.535)
N1		0.910	1.037 (0.556-1.934)
N2		0.091	0.678 (0.433-1.063)
N3			1.000
TNM staging	0.000	0.008
Stage I		0.030	0.134 (0.022-0.822)
Stage II		0.004	0.387 (0.204-0.735)
Stage III			1.000
Platelet counting	0.382
< 300 × 109/L
≥ 300 × 109/L
CEA	0.000	0.547
< 5 ng/mL			0.912 (0.675-1.231)
≥ 5 ng/mL			1.000
NLR	0.000	0.003
< 3.5			0.626 (0.460-0.852)
≥ 3.5			1.000

NLR: Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; CEA: Carcinoembryonic antigen; HR: Hazard ratio.