Prognostic Significance of Platelet-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Gliomas: A Meta-analysis

Background and objective: Inflammatory factors are associated with tumour initiation, progression, invasion, and metastasis. It is a potential prognostic factor for multiple solid tumours. Such as cholangiocarcinoma, bladder cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma and so on. However, there is no clear evidence that elevation of the systemic inflammatory marker, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), has this type of predictive value in patients with glioma. This meta-analysis aimed to explored the prognostic significance of the preoperative inflammatory marker PLR in patients with glioma. Methods: Systematic retrieval of articles published between the time of their conception and September 2020 in PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane library databases, A meta-analysis was performed via Review Manager 5.3, using the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for overall survival (OS) to assess the predictive significance of PLR in patients with glioma. Result: We selected nine studies and showed that in patients with glioma, increased PLR was correlated with poor OS (HR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.09–1.71, P = 0.007, I2 = 55%). By analysing the I2, we estimated moderate heterogeneity in several of the published articles that were incorporated. Conclusion: Our meta-analysis provides evidence that increased PLR is correlated with poor OS in patients with glioma cancer.