Association of High Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio With Poor Outcomes of Pembrolizumab Therapy in High-PD-L1-expressing Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to determine whether the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) reflected poor treatment benefits in patients with tumor proportion score (TPS) ≥50% and who under went first-line pembrolizumab monotherapy.

Patients and methods: This study retrospectively analyzed patients with untreated stage III/IV or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with TPS ≥50% and who received pembrolizumab monotherapy at two hospitals between February 2017 and April 2019. The NLR was calculated from pre-treatment complete blood counts.

Results: A total of 51 previously untreated patients with NSCLC who had TPS ≥50% and who underwent pembrolizumab monotherapy were evaluated. Multivariate analysis revealed that high NLR, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (PS) ≥2, stage IV or recurrent cancer, and TPS=50-74% were significantly and independently associated with poor progression-free survival. Moreover, high NLR and PS ≥2 were significantly associated with short overall survival.

Conclusion: A high pre-treatment NLR was associated with significantly short progression-free and overall survival in previously untreated patients with NSCLC with high expression of programmed cell-death ligand 1 treated with pembrolizumab monotherapy.

Keywords: Non-small cell lung cancer; PD1; neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio; pembrolizumab; predictor.