ArticleFrontiers in immunology2026
Prognostic significance of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratios in hepatocellular carcinoma: a retrospective multicenter study on overall and recurrence-free survival following liver resection or liver transplantation.
Article in Frontiers in immunology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Editorial: Checkpoint immunotherapy: reshaping the landscape of gastrointestinal cancer treatment, volume II.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Spatial organization of neutrophil and macrophage populations in surgically treated hepatocellular carcinoma: a practical tissue-based immunophenotyping study.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Systemic inflammation plays a critical role in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) progression and postoperative outcomes. This study assessed the prognostic value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for overall (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) in patients undergoing curative hepatectomy or orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Methods: In this multicenter retrospective cohort of 74 HCC patients (86.5% male; median age 68.0 years), NLR and PLR were evaluated preoperatively and at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-months post-surgery. Associations with OS and RFS were evaluated using univariate, multivariable, and Cox proportional hazards models with time-varying covariates, while model discrimination was assessed using Harrell's concordance index. Results: Elevated preoperative PLR predicted major postoperative complications (AUROC = 0.667, p = 0.030). The 3-month NLR demonstrated strong discriminative performance for OS (C-index 0.79). In time-varying Cox models, postoperative NLR emerged as a robust, time-independent predictor of OS (HR 1.35; p = 0.033), independent of the surgical procedure and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage. Multivariable analyses demonstrated that elevated NLR at 3-, 6-, and 12-months and PLR at 12 months independently predicted reduced OS. Hepatectomy was the dominant determinant of reduced RFS compared with OLT (p < 0.001), while an NLR threshold >2.5 identified a subgroup at markedly increased mortality risk, particularly following hepatectomy. Conclusions: Postoperative NLR is a powerful, time-independent prognostic biomarker for OS in surgically treated HCC, especially after liver resection, while PLR provides complementary prognostic information. These findings support the clinical integration of inflammation-based biomarkers into postoperative risk stratification and surveillance strategies.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.