Deconstructing neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in early breast cancer: lack of prognostic utility and biological correlates across tumor subtypes

Abstract

PURPOSE: The prognostic utility and biological correlates of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), a potential biomarker of the balance between immune response and the inflammatory status, are still uncertain in breast cancer (BC). METHODS: We analysed a cohort of 959 women with early breast cancer, mostly treated with neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Clinical and pathological data, survival, NLR (continuous and categorical) and stromal tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (sTIL) were evaluated. RESULTS: NLR was only weakly associated with Ki67, while no association was found for grade, histology, immunohistochemical subtype or stage. Lymphocyte infiltration of the tumor did not correlate with NLR (Rho: 0.05, p-=-0.30). These results were similar in the whole group and across the different BC subtypes, with no differences in triple negative BC. Relapse free interval (RFI), breast cancer specific survival (BCSS) and overall survival (OS) changed according to pre-treatment NLR neither in the univariate nor in the multivariate Cox models (RFI: HR 0.948, p-=-0.61; BCSS: HR 0.920, p-=-0.57; OS: HR 0.96, p-=-0.59). CONCLUSION: These results question the utility of NLR as a prognostic biomarker in early breast cancer and suggest the lack of correlation of NLR with tumor microenvironment immune response.