Tang X, et al. – The aim of this study was to explore the association between the neutrophil–to–lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and histopathological characteristics of bladder cancer. It was found that preoperative neutrophil–to–lymphocyte ratio was correlated with pathological tumor grading, but was not correlated with pathological tumor staging in patients with bladder cancer.

Methods

• Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis on a cohort of patients (n=302) who were diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent transurethral resection of bladder tumor or cystectomy between 2009 and 2016.
• They correlated the pathological outcomes between patients with low NLR and those with high NLR with a cut–off value of 2.5, and a logistic regression analysis was conducted to find potential predictors of pathological tumor outcomes.

Results

• The evidence showed that patients with high–grade disease had significantly higher NLRs compared to those with low–grade disease (median NLR=4.42 vs. 3.42, p<0.001).
• In this univariate analysis, researchers demonstrated that age, neutrophil count and NLR, as a continuous or binary variable, were significantly correlated with high–grade disease.
• In addition, multivariate analysis indicated that age and NLR, as a continuous variable, were predictors of pathologically high–grade disease.