Combining prognostic value of nodal ratio and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in completely resected gastric cancer with D2 lymph node dissection.
e15565 Background: Outcomes in gastric cancer (GC) are still dismal even with complete D2 resection surgery and chemotherapy (CT), therefore identification of prognostic factors is critical to stratify patients at risk of recurrence or death. Nodal ratio (NR) has been recognized as a valuable prognostic factor and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as systemic inflammation biomarker in some neoplasms. We evaluate overall survival (OS) combining NR and NLR among completely resected GC patients with D2 lymph node dissection in a Peruvian population. Methods: We reviewed retrospectively 791 medical records from GC pts with complete radical D2 resection between 2008 and 2012 at Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Neoplasicas. We grouped according NR in < 0.2(Low), 0.2-0.5(Intermediate) and > 0.5(High), and NLR with cut-off < 3 and ≥3. We evaluated overall survival combining NR and NLR, also univariate and multivariate cox analysis were performed. OS was based on national registry and cannot evaluate DFS as long most patients return to their primary hospitals to follow-up. Results: Mean age was 60y [rank: 19-89]. Most frequent characteristics were distal localization (52.4%), intestinal subtype (52.6%) and poor differentiated histology (53%). From 791 patients, 156, 194 and 441 were diagnosed at I, II and III CS, respectively. Most patients had nodal involvement (66.8%), 21% and 28.4% received RT and CT, respectively. NLR < 3 was associated to early disease (p < 0.05). In nodal ratio groups, 68.9% had low, 23% intermediate and 8.1% high ratio, no differences were observed with NLR. At 5years median follow up, patients with NLR < 3 and low nodal ratio had better 5-year OS in this nodal group (71% vs 58% on NLR≥3; HR:0.75, 95%CI:0.49-0.94, p = 0.016]), and patients with intermediate and high nodal ratio had worse outcomes (25 and 15% 5year OS, respectively) without differences with NLR. Multivariate analysis showed higher nodal ratio had negative impact on OS. Conclusions: Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio < 3 was associated to better OS in patients with low nodal ratio ( < 0.2), indeed this approach could be usefull to identify high risks patients with early disease in further studies.