Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39049989›Full record

ArticleOncology letters2024

Prognostic significance of the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio in locally advanced breast cancer.

Bader Alshamsan, Mahmoud A Elshenawy, Mohamed Aseafan, Nermin Fahmy, Ahmed Badran, Tusneem Elhassan, Adher Alsayed, Kausar Suleman, Taher Al-Tweigeri

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Oncology letters, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed, 1 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

7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Exploratory evaluation of CA 15-3 × NLR score for predicting pathologic complete response in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2026
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  5. Review
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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

9 authors.

Bader AlshamsanDepartment of Medicine, College of Medicine, Qassim University, Buraydah, Qassim 52571, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Mahmoud A ElshenawySection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Mohamed AseafanSection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Nermin FahmySection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ahmed BadranSection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Tusneem ElhassanSection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Adher AlsayedSection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Kausar SulemanSection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Taher Al-TweigeriSection of Medical Oncology, Oncology Center, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh 11211, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The present study aimed to clarify the prognostic role of the pre-treatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) for the response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in locally advanced breast cancer (LABC). Due to conflicting results in currently available data, the specific focus of the present study was on evaluating the associations between the pre-treatment NLR and the rate of achieving a pathological complete response (pCR) and survival outcomes. For the present study, data from a cohort of 465 consecutive patients with LABC who underwent NAC at King Feisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center (Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) between 2005 and 2014 were obtained from a prospective BC database and analyzed. Patients were stratified into two groups based on an optimal NLR cut-off determined using the receiver operating characteristic curve. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess variables associated with pCR, and Cox regression analyses were used to assess variables associated with survival outcomes. The low pre-treatment NLR group (≤2.2) was found to exhibit a higher likelihood of achieving a pCR (odds ratio, 2.59; 95% CI, 1.52-4.38; P<0.001), along with higher 5-year disease-free survival (DFS) [75.8 vs. 64.9%; hazard ratio (HR), 0.69; 95% CI, 0.50-0.94; P=0.02] and 5-year overall survival (OS; 90.3 vs. 81.9; HR, 0.62; 95% CI, 0.39-0.98; P=0.04) rates compared with those in the high NLR group (>2.2). Sub-group analysis revealed that the observed significance in survival outcomes was driven by the triple-negative BC (TNBC) subgroup. Patients with residual TNBC disease and a high pre-treatment NLR were observed to have lower 5-year DFS (44.4 vs. 75.0%; P=0.02) and 5-year OS (55.9 vs. 84.5%; P=0.055) rates compared with those with residual TNBC disease and a low NLR. To conclude, data from the present study suggest that the pre-treatment NLR can serve as a viable independent prognostic factor for pCR following NAC in patients with LABC and for survival outcomes, particularly for patients with TNBC.

Indexed as

BCNACNLRpCRresidual diseasetriple-negative

Identifiers

PMID39049989
PMCPMC11268088

What OpenQuestion holds

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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.