Chinese Journal of Lung Cancer (Mar 2024)

Correlation Analysis between Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte Ratio 
and the Risk of Malnutrition in Stage IV Primary Lung Cancer

  • Ping XIAO,
  • Hai PAN,
  • Qing MA,
  • Liping SONG,
  • Diansheng ZHONG

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3779/j.issn.1009-3419.2024.106.06
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 27, no. 3
pp. 193 – 198

Abstract

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Background and objective Malnutrition is commonly associated with poor prognosis in patients with malignant tumors. The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is an indicator of inflammation in the body and predicts the risk of malnutrition in a variety of diseases; however, its association with malnutrition in lung cancer patients is unclear. The aim of this study is to clarify the association between NLR and nutritional status in stage IV primary lung cancer and to further determine the optimal NLR cut-off that best predicts the risk of malnutrition. Methods A retrospective analysis of 209 patients admitted to the Department of Medical Oncology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital with a primary diagnosis of stage IV lung cancer from May 2019 to February 2021 was performed, and the nutritional risk screening 2002 (NRS 2002) was used to examine their nutritional status. Patient demographic information, pathology, Karnofsky performance status (KPS) score, body mass index (BMI), comorbidities and clinical biochemical indicators were also included. The correlation between NLR and NRS 2002 was investigated. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the best NLR cut-off predi cting malnutrition risk. Multivariable Logistic regression was used to assess the association between NLR and malnutrition risk. Results The rate of patients with stage IV primary lung cancer at nutritional risk was 36.36% (76/209). A significant positive correlation was observed between NLR values and NRS 2002 risk score (r=0.765, P3.94 group had a significantly higher risk of malnutrition compared to those in the NLR≤3.94 group (69.49% vs 23.33%, P<0.001). Furthermore, NLR was identified as a risk factor for malnutrition in stage IV primary lung cancer patients. Conclusion NLR is associated with the risk of malnutrition in stage IV primary lung cancer, and NLR can be used as one of the indicators for screening nutritional risk in patients with stage IV primary lung cancer.

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