Clinical significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio changes in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer after receiving cryoablation

Objective: To discuss the clinical significance of peripheral neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) changes in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) after receiving argon-helium cryoablation. Methods: A total of 33 CRPC patients, who were treated with argon-helium cryoablation at Tianjin Medical University Cancer Hospital, were included in this study. The clinical and pathological data were collected and analyzed. The following factors that might affect the postoperative overall survival (OS) of patients were analyzed with univariate and multivariate analysis: age, baseline PSA level, hemoglobin, white blood cell count, platelet count, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, NLR, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), hormone sensitive time, chemotherapy, bone metastasis, Gleason score, ECOG score, PSA effective rate. Results: A total of 33 patients were enrolled in this study,the average age was 69 years (50-82 years) and the median survival time was 28 months (6-55 months). Univariate analysis showed that the baseline PSA level, alkaline phosphatase, NLR, hormone sensitive time, chemotherapy, bone metastases, Gleason score and PSA effective rate were significantly correlated with OS of CRPC patients after receiving cryoablation (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that the baseline PSA level (P = 0.003), NLR (P = 0.009), Gleason score (P < 0.001) were independent predictive factors for OS of CRPC patients after cryoablation therapy. Conclusion: NLR can be used as a prognostic predictor for CRPC patients undergoing argon-helium cryoablation, and the increased NLR indicates a poor prognosis. (authors)