Pretreatment Neutrophil–to–Lymphocyte Ratio Predicts Survival After TAS-102 Treatment of Patients With Metastatic Colorectal Cancer

Abstract

Background/Aim: TAS-102 is recommended as salvage-line therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), but practical predictors for its efficacy are lacking. Patients and Methods: In a single-institutional retrospective study of 33 patients treated with TAS-102, we investigated the predictive value of the pretreatment neutrophil–to–lymphocyte (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte (PLR), and lymphocyte-monocyte (LMR) ratios for progression-free (PFS) and overall (OS) survival. Predictive ability using cut-offs of the median value (3.14) and 5 for NLR were compared. Results: In univariate analysis, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance score, NLR, and PLR were negatively significantly associated with PFS and OS. The number of treatment lines was negatively associated with PFS. The NLR cut-off of 5 was superior to the median value. Multivariate analyses showed a significant prognostic impact for NLR at cut-off 5 (hazard ratio(HR)=6.26, p=0.02 for PFS; HR=6.97, p=0.07 for OS). Conclusion: The pretreatment NLR is a prognostic biomarker for patients with mCRC who receive TAS-102 treatment.