Lim JU, Kang HS, Yeo CD, et al. - A multicenter retrospective cohort study was conducted to evaluate the effect of combined chronic obstructive pulmonary disease status and systemic inflammatory biomarkers, like neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), on predicting the outcome of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Researchers examined medical records of patients with stage IIIB and IV NSCLC in seven university hospitals between January 2012 and January 2018. Individuals were classified into four subgroups based on pulmonary function test results and cutoffs for NLR or a PLR. They assessed 277 individuals and classified them into non-COPD and COPD groups; 194 patients were in the non-COPD group and 83 patients were in the COPD group. Significantly longer overall survival (OS) was seen in the non-COPD group vs the COPD group. Median survival was significantly different between high/low PLR groups, between high/low NLR groups, and between high/low c-reactive protein (CRP) groups. The high PLR, COPD sub-group had significantly greater risk for mortality vs the low-PLR non-COPD group as seen in the multivariate analysis; COPD-NLR subtype was not an independent predictor for OS. The outcomes of this research revealed that in patients with advanced NSCLC, a combination of COPD status and PLR may be a cost-effective and readily available prognostic marker.