• Michele Moschetta, Mario Uccello, Benjamin Kasenda, Gabriel Mak, Anissa McClelland, Stergios Boussios, Martin Forster, and Hendrik-Tobias Arkenau.
• Drug Development Unit, Sarah Cannon Research Institute, London, UK.
• Biomed Res Int. 2017 Jan 1; 2017: 1506824.

IntroductionBaseline neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been repeatedly reported as a significant prognostic factor in advanced cancer patients. We explored whether changes in NLR may predict outcome of advanced cancer patients enrolled into phase 1 trials and treated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors.Patients And MethodsAdvanced cancer patients enrolled into phase 1 trials between September 2013 and May 2016 and treated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents were included in this retrospective study. NLR was calculated at baseline and after 2 cycles of treatment. Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH) prognostic score and Eastern Cooperative Group (ECOG) performance status (PS) were determined at baseline. Kaplan-Meier estimation and Cox regression analyses were used to assess the impact of NLR dynamics on PFS.ResultsAmong the 55 patients eligible, 26 (47%) were treated with anti-PD-L1 monotherapy, 22 (40%) received single agent anti-PD-1, and 7 (13%) were given a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) plus a PD-1 inhibitor. Neither ECOG PS nor RMH prognostic score was significantly associated with PFS in our cohort, whereas changes in NLR significantly impacted on PFS.ConclusionChanges in the NLR may be a useful predicting factor in advanced cancer patients treated with anti-PD-1/PD-L1 agents. Further prospective trials are needed to verify these findings.

21 keywords...

hide…