Objective: To investigate the predictive value of common preoperative laboratory variables in patients undergoing bilateral inguinal lymph node dissection surgery for penile squamous cell carcinoma.
Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the records of 228 patients who had bilateral inguinal lymph node dissection for penile squamous cell carcinoma to assess the following clinical factors: preoperative laboratory measurements, white blood cell count, platelet count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, serum calcium, total protein, globulin, pathological factors and survival rates after surgery.
Results: The percentage of positive lymph nodes was 52.6%. Univariate analysis showed that the tumor stage and grade, the presence of metastasis, white blood cell count, platelet count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and globulin were significantly associated with the disease-specific survival (all P < 0.05). At multivariate analysis, only the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio had an independent effect (hazard ratio 2.131; P = 0.035). The predictive accuracy of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio was the best among the laboratory variables. The predictive accuracy of the basic pathological factors was significantly increased by incorporating the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio prognosticator.
Conclusion: The neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio before inguinal lymph node dissection might be useful for predicting the prognosis of patients with penile squamous cell carcinoma.
Keywords: inflammation; lymph node metastasis; penile neoplasms; prognosis; survival rate.
© 2019 The Japanese Urological Association.