Pretreatment lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) as a superior predictor of short-term progression outcomes in patients with gastric cancer receiving second- and later-line apatinib regimens

Purpose Lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) has previously been used as a prognostic predictor in various solid tumors. This research aims in comparing the prognostic predictive Please check and conability of several inflammatory parameters and clinical parameters to validate further the excellent prognostic value of LMR in patients with gastric cancer treated with apatinib. Methods Monitor inflammatory, nutritional parameters and tumor markers . Cutoff values of the parameters concerned were identified with the X-tile program. Subgroup analysis was made via Kaplan–Meier curves, and univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were used to find independent prognostic factors. The nomogram of logistic regression models was constructed according to the results. Results A total of 192 patients (115 divided into training group and 77 into validation group) who received the second- or later-line regimen of apatinib were retrospectively analyzed. The optimal cutoff value for LMR was 1.33. Patients with high LMR (LMR-H) were significantly longer than those with low LMR (LMR-L) in progression-free survival (median 121.0 days vs. median 44.5 days, P < 0.001). The predictive value of LMR was generally uniform across subgroups. Meanwhile, LMR and CA19-9 were the only hematological parameters with significant prognostic value in multivariate analysis. The area under the LMR curve (0.60) was greatest for all inflammatory indices. Adding LMR to the base model significantly enhanced the predictive power of the 6-month probability of disease progression (PD). The LMR-based nomogram showed good predictive power and discrimination in external validation. Conclusion LMR is a simple but effective predictor of prognosis for patients treated with apatinib.