Value of the Platelet to Lymphocyte Ratio in the Diagnosis of Ovarian Neoplasms in Adolescents

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> Relationships between poor prognosis of ovarian malignancies and changes in complete bloodcount parameters have been proposed previously. In this work, we aimed to evaluate clinicopathologic featuresin adolescents with adnexal masses and sought to establish any predictive value of the platelet to lymphocyteratio (PLR) in diagnosis. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: This retrospective study was conducted on 196 adolescentfemales with adnexal masses. Three groups were constituted with respect to clinical or histopathology results:group 1, non-neoplastic patients (n:65); group 2, neoplastic patients (n:68); and group 3 expectantly managedpatients (n:63). The main parameters recorded from the hospital database and patient files were age, body massindex (BMI), chief symptoms, diameter of the mass (DOM), tumor marker levels, complete blood count valuesincluding absolute neutrophil, lymphocyte, and platelet counts, mean platelet volume, platelet distributionwidth, and platecrit, surgical features, and postoperative histopathology results. <br/><b>Results</b>: The expectantlymanaged patients were younger than the other groups (p=0.007). The mean body mass index (BMI) was higherin the neoplastic group (p=0.016). Preoperative DOM, CA125, mean platelet volume and PLR were statisticallysignificantly different between the groups (p<0.05). ROC curve analysis demonstrated that increased PLR(AUC, 0.609; p=0.011) and BMI (AUC, 0.611; p=0.011) may be discriminative factors in predicting ovarianneoplasms in adolescents preoperatively. When the cut-off point for the PLR level was set to 140, the sensitivityand specificity levels were found to be 65.7% and 57.6%, respectively. <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: We suggest that beside acareful preoperative evaluation including clinical characteristics, ultrasonographic features and tumor markers,PLR may predict ovarian neoplasms in adolescents.