Prognostic role of the combination of platelet count and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio in patients with hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HPSCC) is an aggressive disease with poor prognosis; but has no established biomarkers on the order of human papilloma virus and p16 in oropharyngeal carcinoma. This study investigated pre-treatment serum markers, including the combination of platelet count and neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (COP-NLR) as a prognosis predictor in patients with HPSCC treated in our hospital. We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records of 118 consecutive patients treated with curative intent at our hospital between 2007 and 2013. Of these 118 patients, we enrolled 100 patients for whom we had sufficient data to analyze relationships between clinico-laboratory characteristics and survival, including the prognostic significance of pre-treatment serum markers and previous reported clinical factors. Multivariate analysis of clinico-laboratory characteristics associated COP-NLR with cancer-specific survival, as were lymph node metastases. Kaplan–Meier analysis and log-rank tests showed that the COP-NLR could stratify those patients into three independent groups (P = 0.003). COP-NLR might be a useful predictor of survival in patients with HPSCC.