Platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio acts as an independent risk factor for patients with hepatitis B virus-related hepatocellular carcinoma who received transarterial chemoembolization.

OBJECTIVE: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common cause of tumor-related deaths worldwide. Previous studies have shown that increased systemic inflammation and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are associated with poor prognosis of various cancers. The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of pretreatment PLR on survival in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related HCC who underwent repeated transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 122 patients with HBV-related HCC who underwent TACE from two centers in the central China were analyzed retrospectively and were separated into two groups based on the median value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR; low: < 2.61 or high: ≥ 2.61) and PLR (low: < 96.13 or high: ≥ 96.13). RESULTS: Patients with low pretreatment PLR and NLR had a higher rate of overall survival compared with patients with a high PLR and NLR (log-rank test). Univariate analyses indicated that a high PLR was a significant risk factor for poor survival (p = 0.022), and multivariate analyses further showed that a high PLR was an independent factor that predicted worse survival (p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that a high pretreatment PLR is a useful prognosticator for poor survival in patients with HBV-related HCC undergoing TACE.