The effect of preoperative neutrophil, platelet and lymphocyte counts on local recurrence and survival in early-stage tongue cancer

The aim of this study was to investigate the predictive value of preoperative neutrophil, platelet and lymphocyte counts in local recurrence and survival in the patients operated for early-stage squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue. 57 patients who underwent surgery for early-stage (stage 1-2) SCC of the tongue were enrolled in the study. Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and neutrophil x PLR value (N x PLR) were used as outcome measures. Local recurrence was detected in 11 (19.3 %) patients during follow-up period. Mortality was seen in 7 (12.3 %) patients. 37 (64.9 %) patients had stage 1 and 20 (35.1 %) patients had stage 2 tumor. NLR, PLR and N x PLR cutoff values were determined as 2.26, 146,855 and 689,912, respectively, by receiver operating characteristic analysis. The relationship between NLR, PLR, N x PLR and local recurrence was statistically significant according to these cutoff values (p values 0.021, 0.020, 0.017, respectively). We suggest that NLR, PLR and N x PLR may be used to predict local recurrence, while their use in overall and disease-free survival is limited. Further studies involving large patient groups are required.