Lee YY et al. – Pretreatment neutrophil:lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be a cost–effective biomarker to stratify risk of recurrence and death in patients with cervical cancer.

• Patients with clinically staged cervical carcinoma (IB to IVA) at Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, from 1996 to 2007 were retrospectively enrolled.

• The authors enrolled 1061 patients with cervical cancer.
• The median NLR was 1.9, with a range of 0.3-27.0.
• When the cohort was divided according to the median NLR, poorer survival outcomes were observed in the group with higher NLR (≥1.9) than in the lower NLR group (<1.9).
• Patients of the higher NLR group (≥1.9) were younger in age and had more advanced staged disease when compared with those of the lower NLR group (<1.9).
• In multivariable analysis, higher pretreatment NLR was identified as being an independent poor prognostic factor for survival.