Impact of pretherapeutic neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, serum albumin, body-mass index, and advanced lung cancer inflammation index on clinical outcome in sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma

Summary Background Squamous cell carcinoma of the nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses is a rare and aggressive cancer entity with poor survival rates. Data on this group of head and neck tumors are scarce. Inflammation and cachexia-based markers and their impact on clinical outcome have been studied in several cancer groups. The aim of this study was to evaluate their prognostic potential in sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma. Patients and methods This retrospective analysis included all patients treated for sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma at a tertiary referral center between 2002 and 2015. Patients were divided into groups with low and high pretherapeutic values based on the values of serum albumin (ALB, median 41.6 g/l), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR, median 3.5), body-mass index (BMI, median 24.7), or advanced lung cancer inflammation index (ALI, median 29.5). Main outcome measures were overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). Statistical analysis included calculation of survival differences using log-rank tests, hazard ratios (HR), and respective 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results 41 patients were included. Low ALB values did not influence OS (median OS not reached in both groups; p = 0.59, HR = 0.75, CI = 0.3–2.1) or DFS (median DFS 0.9 years vs 2.2 years; p = 0.6, HR = 0.8, CI = 0.4–1.8). High NLR was significantly associated with worse OS rates (median OS not reached vs 1.7 years, p = 0.02, HR = 3.4, CI = 1.0–108) but with no influence on DFS (median DFS 3.1 years vs 0.8 years; p = 0.15, HR = 1.8, CI = 0.8–4.2). Similar results were observed for patients with low ALI (median OS 1.7 years vs not reached; p = 0.03, HR = 0.3, CI = 0.1–0.9 and median DFS 0.8 years vs 2.2 years; p = 0.58, HR = 0.8, CI = 0.3–1.8). BMI was the strongest prognosticator in our study. Low pretherapeutic BMI was linked to significantly worse OS (median OS 1.4 years vs not reached; p = 0.003, HR = 0.2, CI = 0.0–0.6) and DFS (median DFS 0.8 years vs not reached; p = 0.02, HR = 0.4, CI = 0.2–0.8). In multivariate analysis BMI was revealed as an independent marker for OS (p = 0.015). No marker reached the level of significance in regard to DFS in multivariate analysis. Conclusion Pretherapeutic BMI had a superior prognostic value in patients with sinonasal squamous cell carcinoma in comparison with other tested variables. BMI may be a simple tool for estimating clinical outcome in SNSCC. However, larger studies are necessary to validate our results.