May the Platelet to Lymphocyte Ratio be a Prognostic Factor for Epithelial Ovarian Cancer?

Abstract

<b>Background:</b> The study aimed to evaluate changes in hematologic parameters, including white blood cell,platelet count, platelet indices, the platelet to lymphocyte and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratios in patients withearly and advanced stages of epithelial ovarian cancers. Materials and <br/><b>Methods</b>: The study included 100 patientswith epithelial ovarian cancer who underwent primary staging exploratory laparotomy. Preoperative hematologicparameters, tumor histopathologic type, grade, stage and serum CA-125 levels were retrospectively analyzed.These parameters were compared between the patients with early (stage I-II) and advanced (stage III-IV) ovariancancer. <br/><b>Results</b>: White blood cell count and platelet indices, including mean platelet volume, platelet distributionwidth and platelet crit did not show a statistically significant difference between groups with early and advancedovarian cancer. However, the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet count, the platelet to lymphocyte ratioand CA-125 level showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001,p<0.01 respectively). <br/><b>Conclusions</b>: It was found that the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelet count and theplatelet to lymphocyte ratio increased with the increasing stage of ovarian cancer. Furthermore, it was seen thatthe platelet to lymphocyte ratio is an independent prognostic factor related to the stage of epithelial ovariancancer.