Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) may be superior to C-reactive protein (CRP) for predicting the occurrence of differentiated thyroid cancer.

OBJECTIVES: NLR (neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio) and PLR (platelet-lymphocyte ratio) are prognostic markers of differentiated thyroid cancers. In our study, we evaluated NLR, PLR and C-reactive protein (CRP) for predicting the occurence of differentiated thyroid cancer. This is the first study that compares NLR and PLR to C-reactive protein indifferantiated thyroid cancer not only papillary cancer but also folliculer cancer. METHODS: This study includes 51 papillary carcinoma, 42 papillary microcarcinoma and 31 folliculer carcinoma patients attending to our outpatient Endocrinology Clinic at Erzurum Region Training and Research Hospital between 2009 and 2014. The control group include 50 age, sex and body mass index matched healty subjects. Blood counts and CRP were measured at the day before surgery. Thyroglobulin was measured after 6 months of operation. RESULTS: There were positive correlations between tumor diameter, age, white blood cell (WBC) and thyroglobulin levels. There were also positive correlation between NLR, PLR and CRP levels. CONCLUSION: In our study, we found out that higher NLR and PLR was associated with higher levels of thyroglobulin which indicates worse survival. CRP levels were also associated with poorer tumor profile but the determining rate was lower according to ROC analysis.

Elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio in patients with euthyroid chronic autoimmune thyreotidis.

OBJECTIVE: The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), determined from peripheral blood, is accepted as an available and practical indicator of the systemic inflammation. In this study, we aimed to determine whether the NLR was higher in euthyroid chronic autoimmune thyreotidis (CAT) patients compared to a healthy control group. METHODS: A total of 112 patients were enrolled in this study, including 59 patients with euthyroid CAT on any form of therapy and 53 healthy controls. Th e CAT patients were similar in age to the healthy control group (mean 33.9±12.8 years versus 30.2±12.4 years, p=0.10). Measurements were available for the white blood cells (WBC), neutrophils, lymphocytes, platelets, C-reactive protein (CRP), thyroid peroxidase immune antibody (anti-TPO), and anti-thyroglobulin immune antibody (anti-TG). The NLR and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were calculated. Differences between the CAT and control groups were tested using the student's t-test and the correlations were determined using Pearson's correlation coefficients. RESULTS: There were no differences between the CAT and control groups for WBCs (7.9±0.3 and 7.4±0.2, respectively; p=0.1) or neutrophils (5.5±0.3 and 5.4±1.1; p=0.9), but lymphocytes were higher in the CAT group (3.1±0.5 vs. 2.04±0.1; p=0.05) as was the NLR (4.0±0.7 vs. 2.0±0.1; p=0.01). Th e NLR was positively correlated with CRP (r=0.6, p<0.001), anti-TPO (r=0.3, p<0.001), anti-TG (r=0.3, p=0.006), WBCs (r=0.4, p<0.001), and the PLR (r=0.73, p<0.001). The PLR was also higher in the CAT than the control group (p=0.02). CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that NLR values were higher in euthyroid CAT patients than in a healthy control group and that NLR correlated with autoantibodies used to diagnose the disease.