Are preoperative complete blood count parameters in peripheral nerve sheath tumors useful diagnostic tools?
Mesut Mısırlıoğlu1
, Aliekber Yapar1, Erdem Aras Sezgin2, Emin Kürşat Bulut1, Galip Beltir1, Bedii Şafak Güngör1
1Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Ankara Oncology Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey
2Department of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Aksaray Training and Research Hospital, Aksaray, Turkey
Keywords: Lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio, malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor, neurofibroma, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, schwannoma
Abstract
Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the diagnostic value of complete blood count (CBC) parameters in patients with peripheral nerve sheath tumors (PNSTs).
Patients and methods: A total of 181 patients (83 males, 98 females; median age: 44 years; range, 15 to 83 years) who underwent surgical treatment for PNSTs in our tertiary oncology center between January 2010 and December 2019 were retrospectively analyzed. Eighty-two patients were diagnosed with a neurofibroma, 79 with a schwannoma, and 20 with a malignant PNST (MPNST). The patient group was evaluated as malignant (n=20) and benign (n=161). Age- and sex-matched patients admitted to our outpatient clinic of orthopedic and traumatology with non-specific symptoms other than tumor, infection, fracture, and rheumatological or hematological diseases were included as the control group (n=165). Data including age, sex, definitive histopathological diagnosis, and pre-treatment CBC values were obtained from the hospital records. Pre-treatment CBC values such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) were calculated for both malignant and benign groups and control groups. Diagnostic values of NLR, PLR, and LMR between PNST groups were assessed using the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis.
Results: Neurofibroma, schwannoma, and MNPST groups had significantly higher median NLR, compared to the control group (p<0.001), while the median LMR was significantly lower in these groups (p<0.05). However, the median PLR was higher only in the MPNST group, compared to the control group (p<0.001). Post-hoc analyses revealed that median NLR, PLR, and LMR ratios were similar in PNST groups, compared to the control group. In addition, the median NLR, PLR, and LMR ratios were similar between malignant and benign patient groups. The highest area under the curve (AUC) was found for NLR (AUC=0.756) and LMR (AUC=0.716) in the MPNST group.
Conclusion: Our study results suggest that NLR, PLR, and LMR may have an added value in the early diagnosis of PNSTs and are valuable for differentiating patients from healthy individuals, although their value in differential diagnosis is still unclear.
The authors declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.
The authors received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.