ArticleBMC cancer2016
Systemic inflammation is an independent predictive marker of clinical outcomes in mucosal squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck in oropharyngeal and non-oropharyngeal patients.
Article in BMC cancer, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
37 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 74 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prognostic Significance of the Pretreatment Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio and Tumor-Associated Neutrophils in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of oral pathology & medicine : official publication of the International Association of Oral Pathologists and the American Academy of Oral Pathology · 2026Pooled it
- Fluid Biomarkers in HPV and Non-HPV Related Oropharyngeal Carcinomas: From Diagnosis and Monitoring to Prognostication-A Systematic Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Optimal cutoff of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in head and neck cancer patients: a meta-analysis and validation study.BMC cancer · 2018Pooled it
- Pretreatment neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in determining the prognosis of head and neck cancer: a meta-analysis.BMC cancer · 2018Pooled it
- Inflammatory-Hematological Profiles in Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Suspicious Adenoid Hypertrophy: An Exploratory Single-Center Study.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Systemic inflammation plays a key prognostic role in patients with head and neck cancer treated with immunotherapy and is linked to CT-based body composition metrics.European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery · 2026Article
- Selection Criteria for De-Escalated Chemoradiotherapy for HPV-Related Oropharyngeal Cancer Based on Prognostic Biomarkers or Early Tumor Response to Therapy: A Narrative Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Role of Proinflammatory Biomarkers in Oral Cancer Pathophysiology.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Blood-Based Inflammatory Markers Are Associated with Treatment Outcomes in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Receiving Anti-PD-1 Therapy: CRP as a Superior Predictive Marker.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Optimizing Prognostic Assessment in High-Risk Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinomas: The Impact of Tumor Budding and a Novel Histomorphological Scoring System.Cancer medicine · 2025Article
- Targeting BRD4: Potential therapeutic strategy for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Review).Oncology reports · 2024Article
- Nomogram-derived immune-inflammation-nutrition score could act as a novel prognostic indicator for patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.Frontiers in immunology · 2024Article
- Prediction of postoperative hypokalemia in patients with oral cancer undergoing en bloc cancer resection: a retrospective cohort study.BMC oral health · 2023Article
- Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio in Oropharyngeal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Cancers · 2023Review
- Predictive Risk Factors Associated with Severe Radiation-Induced Mucositis in Nasopharyngeal or Oropharyngeal Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study.Biomedicines · 2022Article
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- Association of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio with severe radiation-induced mucositis in pharyngeal or laryngeal cancer patients: a retrospective study.BMC cancer · 2021Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundCurrently there are very few biomarkers to identify head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) cancer patients at a greater risk of recurrence and shortened survival. This study aimed to investigate whether a marker of systemic inflammation, the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), was predictive of clinical outcomes in a heterogeneous cohort of HNSCC cancer patients.
methodsWe performed a retrospective analysis to identify associations between NLR and clinicopathological features to recurrence free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). Univariate analysis was used to identify associations and selected variables were included in multivariable Cox regression analysis to determine predictive value.
resultsA total of 145 patients with stage I-IV HNSCC that had undergone radiotherapy were analysed. Seventy-six of these patients had oropharyngeal cancer and 69 had non-oropharyngeal HNSCC and these populations were analysed separately. NLR was not associated to any clinicopathological variable. On univariate analysis, NLR showed associations with RFS and OS in both sub-populations. Multivariable analysis showed patients with NLR > 5 had shortened OS in both sub-populations but NLR > 5 only predicted RFS in oropharyngeal patients. Poor performance status predicted OS in both sub-populations and current smokers had shortened OS and RFS in non-oropharyngeal patients.
conclusionsThe results show patients with NLR > 5 predict for shorter overall survival. Further prospective validation studies in larger cohorts are required to determine the clinical applicability of NLR for prognostication in HNSCC patients.
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