MELEK AKÇAY, DURMUŞ ETİZ, ALAATTİN ÖZEN, SUZAN ŞAYLISOY
Turkish Journal of Oncology - 2019;34(2):92-99
OBJECTIVE Nasopharyngeal cancer’s presentation and prognosis are variable. Even patients with the same clinical stage can have very different prognoses. The aim of the present study was to investigate clinical outcomes and prognosis, especially the effects of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), of non-metastatic nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in patients receiving radiotherapy (RT)±chemotherapy (CT) between March 2006 and August 2017 in the Eskişehir Osmangazi University Medical Faculty of Radiation Oncology Department. METHODS Sixty-two patients with non-metastatic NPC treated with RT±CT were retrospectively evaluated. Patient characteristics, such as age, gender, Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS), T phase, N phase, tumor, lymph node, and metastasis phase, histopathologic subgroup, tumor size, NLR, and hemoglobin value, and treatment characteristics, such as concurrent/adjuvant CT status, RT intermission time, and RT total time, were investigated. RESULTS Median overall survival (OS) was 55 (10134) months, whereas median disease-free survival was 44 (6129) months. The median duration of local control was 48 (6129) months. Eleven (17.7%) patients developed distant metastases. Distant metastases were detected in 6 (9.7%) patients who had local control. Statistically significant results were obtained between general survival and sex (p=0.015), KPS (p<0.001), and NLR (p<0.001). Distant metastases were found to be significantly higher in male cases, and all 11 metastatic cases were male (Fisher’s exact test, p=0.012). CONCLUSION Patients with high NLR had lower OS, and pretreatment NLR value may be a guide in determining which patients should receive more aggressive treatment.
