Prognostic Role of NLR in Urinary Cancers: A Meta-Analysis

Background: Recently, many studies explored the role of inflammation parameters such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in the prognosis of urinary cancers, but the results were not consistent. Methods: We carried out a meta-analysis of published studies to assess the prognostic value of NLR in patients with urinary cancers. Hazard ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association of NLR and OS and RFS/CSS. Results: The pooled results showed that high NLR was a poor predictor for OS with HR of 1.81 (95% CI: 1.48-2.21; P-heterogeneity = 0.005) and RFS/CSS (HR = 2.07, 95% CI: 1.65-2.6; P-heterogeneity = 0.849). Subgroup analyses revealed that high NLR yielded a worse OS in RCC (HR = 1.9, 95% CI: 1.47-2.45; P-heterogeneity = 0.003) and a poor RFS/CSS in RCC (HR = 1.83, 95% CI: 1.35-2.48; P-heterogeneity = 0.709), bladder cancer (HR = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.27-3.8; P-heterogeneity = 0.447) and urothelial carcinoma (HR = 2.58, 95% CI: 1.66-4.01; P-heterogeneity = 0.784). Conclusion: Our results showed that NLR could act as a significant biomarker in the prognosis of urinary cancers.