The value of immune inflammatory index in predicting the therapeutic efficacy of neoadju-vant chemoradiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma / 中华消化外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the value of immune inflammatory index in predic-ting the therapeutic efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for esophageal squamous cell carci-noma (ESCC).Methods:The retrospective case-control study was conducted. The clinicopatholo-gical data of 163 patients with ESCC who were admitted to Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University from December 2015 to December 2020 were collected. There were 135 males and 28 females, aged (62±8)years. All 163 patients underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and radical resection for ESCC. Observation indicators (1) relationship between immune inflammatory index and clinical characteristic in patients; (2) relationship between immune inflammatory index and efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in patients; (3) influencing factor analysis for pathologic complete response and good response of tumor regression grade after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy; (4) efficiency of immune inflammatory index in predicting efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Measurement data with normal distribution were represented as Mean± SD. Count data were described as absolute numbers, and comparison between groups was conducted using chi-square test. Comparison of ordinal data was conducted using the rank sum test. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the optimal cut-off value. Univariate and multi-variate analyses were conducted using the Logistic regression model. The area under the curve (AUC) of ROC curve was used to evaluate the efficiency of predictive model. Results:(1) Relationship between immune inflammatory index and clinical characteristic in patients. ① Optimal cut-off value of systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lympho-cyte ratio (PLR). Results of ROC curve analysis showed that the AUC of SII, NLR, PLR in predicting efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy for patients with ESCC was 0.70(95% confidence interval as 0.61?0.77), 0.78(95% confidence interval as 0.69?0.84), 0.79(95% confidence interval as 0.70?0.85), respectively, with the maximum value of Youden index and the optimal cut-off value as 0.25, 0.32, 0.52 and 446×10 9/L, 2.09, 138. ② Relationship between SII, NLR, PLR and clinical charac-teristic in patients. According to the optimal cut-off value of SII, NLR, PLR, all 163 patients were divided into cases with SII <446×10 9/L as 99, cases with SII ≥446×10 9/L as 64, cases with NLR <2.09 as 107, cases with NLR ≥2.09 as 56, cases with PLR<138 as 88, cases with PLR ≥138 as 75, respectively. There was a significant difference in clinical N staging of tumor in patients with SII <446×10 9/L and SII ≥446×10 9/L ( P<0.05). There were significant differences in clinical N staging and clinical TNM staging of tumor in patients with NLR<2.09 and NLR≥2.09 ( P<0.05). (2) Relationship between immune inflammatory index and efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in patients. Of 163 patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, there were 54 cases with pathologic complete response and 109 cases without pathologic complete response, 94 cases with good response of tumor regression grade and 69 cases with poor response of tumor regression grade. Of the 54 patients with pathologic complete response, cases with SII <446×10 9/L and SII ≥446×10 9/L, cases with NLR <2.09 and NLR ≥2.09, cases with PLR <138 and PLR ≥138 before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy were 42 and 12, 47 and 7, 48 and 6, respectively. The above indicators were 57 and 52, 60 and 49, 40 and 69 in the 109 cases without pathologic complete response. There were significant differences in the above indicators between patients with pathologic complete response and without pathologic complete response ( χ2=9.83, 16.39, 39.60, P<0.05). Of the 94 cases with good response of tumor regression grade, cases with SII <446×10 9/L and SII ≥446×10 9/L, cases with NLR <2.09 and NLR ≥2.09, cases with PLR <138 and PLR ≥138 before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy were 59 and 35, 78 and 16, 56 and 38, respectively. The above indicators were 40 and 29, 29 and 40, 32 and 37 in the 69 cases with poor response of tumor regression grade. There was no significant difference in the SII and PLR ( χ2=0.38, 2.79, P>0.05) and there was a significant difference in the NLR ( χ2=29.59, P<0.05) between patients with good response of tumor regression grade and poor response of tumor regre-ssion grade. (3) Influencing factor analysis for pathologic complete response and good response of tumor regression grade after neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Results of multivariate analysis showed that PLR <138 before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy was an independent protective factor for pathologic complete response in ESCC patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy ( odds ratio=1.98, 95% confidence interval as 1.56?2.51, P<0.05) and NLR <2.09 before neoadjuvant chemo-radiotherapy was an independent protective factor for good response of tumor regression grade ( odds ratio=2.50, 95% confidence interval as 1.40?4.46, P<0.05). (4) Efficiency of immune inflam-matory index in predicting efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradio-therapy. The AUC of PLR <138 before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in predicting pathologic complete response of ESCC patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy was 0.79(95% confidence interval as 0.64?0.87, P<0.05), with the sensitivity, specificity and Youden index as 0.89, 0.63 and 0.52, respectively. The AUC of NLR <2.09 before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in predic-ting good response of tumor regression grade of ESCC patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradio-therapy was 0.76 (95% confidence interval as 0.64?0.81, P<0.05), with the sensitivity, specificity and Youden index as 0.83, 0.58 and 0.41, respectively. Conclusion:The PLR<138 and NLR <2.09 before neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy are independent protective factors for the pathologic complete response and good response of tumor regression grade, respectively, of ESCC patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, and both of them can predict the curative effect of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy well.