Preoperative Lymphocyte-to-monocyte Ratio and CA125 Level as Risk Factors for Advanced Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Background: Detailed descriptions of the relationship between lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio alone and combined with CA125 (COLC) and advanced stage of ovarian cancer (OC) have been lacking to date. This study is to analyze the relationship between LMR, CA125 and COLC and advanced stage of OC.

Methods: A retrospective clinicopathologic review was performed. The receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves of LMR, CA125, and COLC staging OC were constructed. Furthermore, a binary logistic regression model was used to assay the independent risk factors.

Results: A total of 225 patients with OC were identified in this cohort. Eighty-five patients with OC were diagnosed at an early stage, and 140 OC patients were diagnosed at an advanced stage. The median of LMR at the early stage was higher than the advanced stage (4.39 vs. 2.78), and the median of CA125 was lower than the advanced stage (80 U/mL vs. 251.25 U/mL). Multivariate logistic regression indicated that LMR (OR=0.314, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.143–0.687, P=0.004) and CA125 (OR=4.045, 95%CI: 1.883–8.692, P<0.001) were associated with OC staging. Furthermore, the area under the curve of COLC was higher than that of LMR (0.779 vs. 0.732) or CA125 (0.779 vs. 0.708) in staging OC. The specificity of COLC was higher than that of LMR (87.11% vs. 70.61%) or CA125 (87.11% vs. 61.21%) in staging OC.

Conclusions: LMR alone or in combination with CA125 might be associated with OC staging. Besides, as a predictive factor, COLC may have high specificity in staging OC.

Background

Ovarian cancer (OC) is the third most common gynecologic malignancy with high mortality [1]. Owing to the tissue and anatomical characteristics [2], a number of patients are diagnosed with advanced disease (FIGO III–IV, version 2014), by which time it is difficult to achieve optimal debulking surgery (ODS). Preoperative staging of OC is beneficial in terms of the choice of treatment. However, the effective index that can accurately reflect the preoperative stage of OC patients is not clear.

The lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) represents the lymphocyte levels divided by the monocyte levels in OC. The LMR has recently been evaluated for its magnitude of survival in various solid cancers [3–5]. However, few studies have evaluated the magnitude of LMR on OC staging. Cancer antigen 125 (CA125) is a mucin-type glycoprotein, produced by the MUC16 gene, associated with the cellular membrane [6]. Previous studies have shown that CA125 was associated with the prognosis of OC [7]. However, the relationship between CA125 and OC staging is still not completely understood and shows inconsistent findings.

Thus, we assessed the magnitude of LMR alone and in combination with CA125 (COLC) to attempt to identify preoperative factors to stage OC.

Methods

Samples And Marker Assays

Preoperative blood samples collected in appropriate collection tubes were transported to the hospital clinical laboratory center at room temperature to determine whole blood cell count and CA125 level. Samples were retrieved and serum CA125 concentrations were measured by two-step immunoassay for the quantitative determination with flexible assay protocols [8]. All biomarkers were assayed in a central laboratory within 3 days before surgery, and the lab personnel were blinded to the clinical data.

Results

Roc Curves Of The Lmr And Ca125

The ROC curve of LMR staging OC is shown in Fig. 1a. The optimal cut-off value of LMR was 3.67, and the sensitivity and specificity were 70.17% and 70.61%, respectively. Patients with OC were divided into two groups based on this cut-off value (LMR > 3.67, n = 101, 44.89%; LMR ≤ 3.67, n = 124, 55.11%).

The ROC curve of CA125 staging OC is shown in Fig. 1b. The optimal cut-off value of CA125 was 95.7 U/mL. The sensitivity and specificity were 80.01% and 61.21%, respectively. OC patients were divided into two groups based on this cut-off value (CA125 > 95.70 U/mL, n = 145, 64.44%; CA125 ≤ 95.70 U/mL, n = 80, 35.56%).

Clinical Characteristics Of Oc Between Early And Advanced Stage

Clinicopathological features between early and advanced stage of OC were compared by chi-square test. The median of LMR in early stage cancer was higher than that in advanced stage cancer (4.39 vs. 2.78), and the median of CA125 was lower in the early than advanced stage of cancer (80 U/mL vs. 251.25 U/mL). Results showed that BMI ≥ 24, histologic serous and G1, malignant ascites (+), lymph node metastases (+), LMR ≤ 3.67, CA125 > 95.7 U/mL were all associated with advanced stage of OC (P < 0.05) (Table 2).

Table 2 Clinical characteristics of ovarian cancer between early stage and advanced stage.

BMI, body mass index; LMR, lymphocyte/monocyte ratio; CA125, cancer antigen 125.

Association of clinicopathological factors of OC patients at the early and advanced stage were analyzed by using univariate and multivariate binary logistic regression analyses. In univariate analyses, histological subtype and grade, malignant ascites, lymph node metastases (+), LMR ≤ 3.67, and CA125 > 95.7 U/mL were all associated with advanced stage in patients with OC (P < 0.05) (Table 3). In the multivariate logistic regression, malignant ascites (OR = 3.917, 95%CI: 1.560–9.833, P = 0.004); lymph node metastases (OR = 5.338, 95%CI: 2.356–12.093, P < 0.001); LMR (OR = 0.314, 95%CI: 0.143–0.687, P = 0.004); and CA125 (OR = 4.045, 95%CI: 1.883–8.692, P < 0.001) were associated with advanced stage (Table 3). Multivariate logistic regression for presence or absence of malignant ascites among matched samples is shown in Table 4. The results showed that both LMR and CA125 were associated with advanced stage of OC (P < 0.05) (Table 4).

Table 3 Binary logistic regression analysis of ovarian cancer staging.

BMI, body mass index; LMR, lymphocyte/monocyte ratio; CA125, cancer antigen 125.

Table 4 Multivariate logistic regression analysis for presence or absence of malignant ascites of ovarian cancer among matched samples

BMI, body mass index; LMR, lymphocyte/monocyte ratio; CA125, cancer antigen 125; +, presence of malignant ascites; -, absence of malignant ascites.

Discussion

In this study, we attempted to determine preoperative indicators to stage OC to help attain ODS, reduce surgical complications and economic burden, and better evaluate the prognosis of OC patients. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that LMR was significantly associated with stage of OC (Table 3): the lower the LMR, the higher the stage, and the worse the prognosis, which was consistent with the conclusion of previous research [10]. Our study also showed that serum CA125 was associated with stage of OC (Table 3); however, the specificity was lower than LMR (Figs. 1a, 1b). To better analyze the factors associated with OC staging, we recommended COLC to improve the accuracy, which achieved a higher AUC and specificity than LMR or CA125, indicating that COLC might have a higher specificity associated with OC staging.

Our study also showed that ascites was associated with stage of OC (Table 3), one probable mechanisms is that constitutive expression of STAT3 in malignant ascites plays a role in ovarian tumor progression and metastasis[11]. Besides, Matt et al (2019) showed that ascites might be associated with CA125 by regulating MUC16 expression at a posttranscriptional level through an Akt-dependent pathway, accordingly, we matched samples with presence or absence of malignant ascites, and the results showed that both LMR and CA125 were significantly associated with OC staging for presence or absence of malignant ascites (Table 4).

LMR and CA125 are calculated directly or computed from blood and can be easily measured, in addition to being practical and inexpensive metrics. At present, several studies have been conducted with respect to the application of LMR and CA125 in OC. LMR and CA125 could likely serve as clinically useful indicators of metastasis and survival in OC patients [4, 7, 12]. CA125 also was reported as a risk factor in the diagnosis of OC [6]. However, few studies have been conducted with respect to the magnitude of LMR an CA125 on staging OC. Our study preliminarily showed that LMR, CA125, and COLC might be risk factors for OC staging.

The mechanisms underlying the capacity of LMR in OC have not yet been elaborated. We tried to explain the possible mechanisms. First, the association between lymphocytes and malignancies has been well established. Tumor infiltrating lymphocytes in OC can prevent cancer cells from spreading and metastasis by establishing a defense barrier [13]. The decrease of peripheral blood lymphocyte count may lead to weak and insufficient tumor immune response, thereby promoting tumor progression and metastasis [14] and resulting in rapid disease progression and late surgical pathological stage in OC patients. Second, inflammation can make monocytes migrate from the bone marrow into peripheral blood [15]. After being recruited into tumor tissue, monocytes can differentiate into tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) [16]. TAMs can not only play an immunosuppressive role in a variety of tumor microenvironments, including OC, but can also promote tumor cell infiltration, growth and neovascularization, and metastasis [17, 18]. Therefore, to an extent, peripheral blood mononuclear cell counts can reflect the formation or existence of TAMs. Besides, the LMR often represents the relative decrease of lymphocyte count and (or) the relative increase of monocyte count, which can reflect the balance of anti-tumor immunity and pro-tumor inflammatory response [12]: low-level LMR often represents the dominant role of pro-tumor inflammatory response, indicating a high level of malignancy and rapid progress in OC. Further, in this case, the possibility of advanced stage OC that is difficult to treat with relatively poor prognosis is higher; on the contrary, high-level LMR indicates that the anti-tumor immune system of patients with OC is more active, indicating that the disease progression of OC is slow, with the possibility of early stage OC and relatively better prognosis.

Rising and falling levels of serum CA125 correlate with the progression and regression of high-grade serous ovarian carcinomas [19], making CA125 a possible factor for OC staging. However, some researchers have also suggested that because of its low specificity and the observed increased levels in different physiological situations, CA125 is not considered as a very good differentiating biomarker for ovarian tumors [6]. Therefore, we recommended the combination of CA125 and LMR (COLC) to stage OC. Our results showed that the AUC and specificity of COLC were higher than those of LMR or CA125 to stage OC (Fig. 1), implying that COLC might improve the accuracy in staging OC and provide guidelines for selection of treatment. As a new biomarker, COLC might play a role in immune surveillance and provide novel approaches and strategies for treatment of OC.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the relationship among LMR, CA125, COLC, and stage of OC. However, our study also has some limitations. Firstly, the retrospective design meant that we cannot conclusively state that LMR, CA125, and COLC are risk factors for advanced stage of OC. However, our study provides a potential clinical strategy for staging advanced OC. Secondly, the potential bias in testing serum CA125 and peripheral blood level cannot be completely eliminated. Nonetheless, we believe that the influence of LMR and CA125 level on the risk of advanced stage of OC will be of interest to clinicians to improve the accuracy in preoperative staging and make clinical strategies. Moreover, LMR is an inflammatory marker that could be affected by autoimmune status and other diseases; hence, we allowed a 30-min interval for blood collection to exclude any possible treatment or drug interference in the results.

Conclusions

LMR alone and in combination with preoperative CA125 might be used as independent risk factors for staging OC and may provide a new direction for making clinical decisions for OC.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Our study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the affiliated Nanchong Central Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College. Informed consent could not be obtained from every patient given the retrospective study design. Therefore, we posted a notice about our study design and contact information at a public location in Nanchong Central Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College.

Consent for publication

Not applicable, as all results presented in this manuscript were aggregated.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Funding

This work was supported by the Bureau of Science and Technology Nanchong City Program (Nos. 14A0098, 16YFZJ0029, 17YFZJ0005, 18SXHZ0126, and 18YFZJ0012), the Primary Health Development Research Center of Sichuan Province Program (Nos. SWFZ17-Y-25 and SWFZ17-C-69), the Science and Technology Department of Sichuan province Program (No. 2015JY0056), and the Nanchong Federation of Social Science Associations Program (No. NC2016B017).

Author Contributions

HH and JL conceived and designed the study. YT and FT analyzed the data. DL, LD, and MZ contributed materials and analysis tools. BS prepared fiFigs and Tables. YTcontributed to the writing of the manuscript, FX revised the manuscript.. All authors have reviewed the manuscript.

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

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