The Study Of The Relationship Between Lymphocyte-monocyte Ratio And The Prognosis Of Hepatocellular Carcinoma After Curative Resection

Objectives: To investigate the correlation between lymphocyte-monocyte ratio(MLR) and clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC).Methods: From June 2006 to November 2009, including 173 male and 35 female patients with mean age of 53 years, preoperative peripheral blood and the clinicopathological data of 208 patients with HCC after curative resection were collected and analyzed. We divided the enrolled patients into low-MLR group(MLR≤1.2) and high-MLR group(MLR>1.2) according to preoperative MLR level, and compared the clinical prognosis of the two groups. Univariate analyses were applied by the Kaplan-Meier method, and then, significant clinical factors were used for further multivariate analyses by Cox proportional hazard regression model.Results: The overall survival(OS) and recurrence-free survival(RFS) of low-MLR group were longer than high-MLR group(OS:42.1 months vs 32.7 months,P<0.01;RFS:38.1 months vs 25.3 months,P<0.01).Some clinical pathological features, such as alanine aminotransferase(AST), serum albumin(ALB), alpha fetoprotein(AFP), vascular invasion, tumor differentiation, tumor size and clinical stage were associated with the prognosis of patients with HCC(P<0.05). Univariate and multiple analyses showed that MLR was related to overall survival(OS,both P<0.01) and recurrence-free survival(RFS,P<0.01 and P=0.005) of patients with HCC.Conclusions: MLR might be used as an independent prognostic marker for the prognosis of patients with HCC after curative resection.