Inflammation indices in prostate cancer patients

Prostate cancer is the leading cause of worldwide incidence of neoplastic disease. On the other hand, inflammation plays a vital role in the spread of cancer cells. The aim of this work was to determine whether NLR and PLR inflammatory indices in prostate cancer patients have a prognostic value for survival and/or predictive of the effect of CIMAVAX-EGF and Nimotuzumab immunotherapy treatments. The results of the present investigation showed that the NLR index decreased and the PLR index increased over time for all treatments. A low NLR proved to be prognostic for the survival of patients in the CIMAvax-EGF trial. Also, the PLR index showed that its predictive value is due to the fact that patients with high PLR treated with Nimotuzumab have a longer survival than controls. The present work shows that the NLR and PLR indices are an accessible and cost-effective laboratory tool that provides prognostic and predictive information for prostate cancer and associated immunotherapeutic treatments.