Evidence map›Paper›PMID 28811903›Full record

ArticleMolecular and clinical oncology2017

Value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio for predicting lung cancer prognosis: A meta-analysis of 7,219 patients.

Yu Yu, Lei Qian, Jiuwei Cui

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular and clinical oncology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
62citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

62 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Defining the role of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in COPD: a systematic literature review.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
    Pooled it
  5. Trial
  6. Article
  7. Article
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  10. Role of Systemic Inflammatory Markers in the Differential Diagnosis of Organizing Pneumonia and Lung Cancer.APMIS : acta pathologica, microbiologica, et immunologica Scandinavica · 2025
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Targeting neutrophils for cancer therapy.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2025
    Review
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Role of Blood Cell Indexes in Progresses to ESRD.Indian journal of clinical biochemistry : IJCB · 2025
    Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review

2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Yu YuCancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China.
Lei QianCancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China.
Jiuwei CuiCancer Center, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, Jilin 130021, P.R. China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Current evidence suggests that the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) may be a biomarker for poor prognosis in lung cancer, although this association remains controversial. Therefore, a meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the association between NLR and lung cancer outcome. A systematic literature search was performed through the PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases (until July 30, 2016), to identify studies evaluating the association between NLR and overall survival (OS) and/or progression-free survival (PFS) among patients with lung cancer. Based on the results of this search, data from 18 studies involving 7,219 patients with lung cancer were evaluated. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) suggested that elevated pretreatment NLR predicted poor OS [HR=1.46, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.30-1.64] and poor PFS (HR=1.42, 95% CI: 1.15-1.75) among patients with lung cancer. Subgroup analysis revealed that the prognostic value of NLR for predicting poor OS increased among patients who underwent surgery (HR=1.50, 95% CI: 1.21-1.84) or patients with early-stage disease (HR=1.64, 95% CI: 1.37-1.97). An NLR cut-off value of ≥4 significantly predicted poor OS (HR=1.56, 95% CI: 1.31-1.85) and PFS (HR=1.54, 95% CI: 1.13-1.82), particularly in the cases of small-cell lung cancer. Thus, the results of the present meta-analysis suggested that an elevated pretreatment NLR (e.g., ≥4) may be considered as a biomarker for poor prognosis in patients with lung cancer.

Indexed as

inflammationlung cancermeta-analysisneutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratioprognosis

Identifiers

PMID28811903
PMCPMC5547766

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.