Preoperative lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio is the most predictive inflammatory response marker of survival in gastric cancer

Purpose Systemic inflammatory responses play a key role in cancer progression, and detecting the predictive inflammatory response markers is needed. The present study explored inflammatory response markers capable of predicting survival in patients with gastric cancer. Methods We enrolled 264 patients, who underwent curative gastrectomy for clinical stage (cStage) I–III gastric cancer between 2012 and 2015. The cut-off point of eight preoperative inflammatory response markers was determined by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The marker with the highest Harrell’s concordance index (C-index) was adopted for subsequent univariate and multivariate analyses using the Cox proportional-hazards model. Results Among eight representative inflammatory response markers, lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR; cut-off point, 4.60) achieved the highest C-index (0.633). The 5-year survival rate was significantly worse in patients with LMR < 4.60 than in those with LMR ≥ 4.60 (67.5% versus 89.0%, P < 0.001). In multivariate analysis, LMR < 4.60 was identified as an independent prognostic factor (hazard ratio: 2.372; 95% confidence interval: 1.266–4.442; P = 0.007). Conclusion In this study, LMR had the strongest ability to predict the survival of patients with gastric cancer among other inflammatory response markers, with lower LMRs being associated with poor survival following curative gastrectomy.