Clinical Significance of Preoperative Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio in Organ-Confined Urothelial Bladder Cancer

Abstract

We aimed to investigate the relationship between the preoperative neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and the postoperative tumor stage and grade in patients with organ- confined urothelial bladder cancer. We examined 308 patients who underwent transurethral resection in our clinic. Our study only included patients whose pathology results were organ-confined urothelial bladder cancer. The patients were classified according to tumor stage (Ta, T1, and T2) and tumor grade (Grade 1 and 2, indicating a low-grade; Grade 3, referring to a high-grade). Then each group was compared within itself based on the NLR evaluated before the surgery. A total of 279 cases (90.6%) were male. The mean age, tumor size, neutrophil and lymphocyte counts of the patients were 69.33±10.92 years, 2.99±2.35 cm, 5.36±1.99 K/uL, and 2.23±0.78 K/uL, respectively. Inflammation parameters regarding the cancer stage were as follows: NLR was 2.08, 2.36, and 3.07, for Ta, T1, and T2 tumors respectively. The relationship between T1 and T2 tumors and Ta and T2 tumors was significant (p <0.001, p <0.001). But there was no significant difference between the Ta and T1 tumors (p: 0.142). NLR was 2.07 and 2.78 for low- and high-grade tumors, respectively. These values were statistically significant (p <0.001). We could not statistically correlate between Ta and T1 tumors. However, based on the other positive correlations we have obtained, we think that NLR evaluated before transurethral resection may be a valuable parameter in predicting the operative pathology result.