Prognostic roles of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes and their relationship in locally advanced triple-negative breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy

Abstract

Introduction: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and stromal tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (sTILs) are associated with immunogenicity and prognosis of patients with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). Objective: To investigated the prognostic roles of NLR and sTILs and their rela-tionship of TNBC patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC). Methods: The clinical data of 170 patients with locally advanced TNBC who received NAC from January 2010 to December 2014 were collected. The difference among variables was calculated by test. The association between essential clinicopathological characteristics, pathological complete response (pCR), NLR, and sTILs with disease-free survival (DFS) was analyzed. Kaplan-Meier and Cox analysis were performed to address the effects of clinical parameters on prognosis. Results: There was a trend that TNBC patients with lower baseline NLR (NLR1) or higher sTILs scoring would obtain a better pCR rate. NLR1 and sTILs were not associated (p > 0.05). Patients with low NLR1 or high sTILs scoring had a significantly improved DFS compared to those with high NLR1 or low sTILs scoring (p = 0.002 and p = 0.001, respectively). The increased lymphocyte count in peripheral blood after NAC was associated with the improved DFS outcome in both high and low NLR1 groups. Cox analysis revealed that NLR1 and sTILs were independent prognostic predictors of DFS outcome (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Low NLR1 and high sTILs were associated with better DFS outcome in locally advanced TNBC patients treated with NAC. Further studies are needed to explore the connection between systemic and local inflammatory/immune markers.