Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio in Adrenocortical Carcinoma.

BACKGROUND

The aim was to explore the value of neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a biomarker for predicting the prognosis or diagnosis in adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC).

METHODS

We identified 262 patients with adrenal gland disease who underwent operation at our institution between 2013 and 2018. According to postoperative pathology, patients were divided into 2 groups: ACC and non-ACC groups. The neutrophil and lymphocyte count of patients were recorded. Within the intergroup comparison, data obtained from ACC and non-ACC groups were evaluated using ANOVA test. The cut-off values of NLR for the prognosis in ACC were determined according to 3 methods.

RESULTS

The NLR values of ACC and non-ACC groups were 5.36 ± 5.30 and (1.73 ± 0.26) ∼ (2.56 ± 1.35), respectively (P < .001). NLR carry a differential property was evaluated with ROC curve to distinguish the above 2 groups. The cut-off value of NLR was estimated as 2.65 according to the Youden index. With this value, sensitivity was found as 67.5%, specificity was 83.8% and AUC was 0.749 (P < .001, confidence interval = 0.638-0.860). In ACC, the higher NLR group was not shown significantly poorer overall survival than the lower NLR group (NLR ≥2.65 vs. NLR < 2.65, NLR ≥5 vs. NLR <5, NLR ≥5.36 vs. NLR <5.36) (P > .05).

CONCLUSION

According to the data in this study, it can be said that adrenocortical tumors are likely to be malignant by 67.5% if the NLR value is greater than 2.65. When we use the NLR to predict the prognosis of ACC, there is not statistically significant.