Advanced Lung Cancer Inflammation index: a prognostic score in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Recent studies have identified that inflammation had a significant association with cancer development and progression.

Aim: To explore the relationship between ALI score and prognosis of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Methods: we conducted a retrospective study of 41 patients with metastatic NSCLC diagnosed between January2010 and January2012. ALI was calculated as body mass index x serum albumin/neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. Patients were divided as low inflammation (ALI≥23.2) and high inflammation (ALI<23.2) groups.

Results: Mean age was 56.3 years, 100% were male, and 49% had adenocarcinoma. The overall survival was 8.9months. Median ALI was 23.2. The median overall survival was 6.7 months and 11.3 months respectively in patients with ALI score<23.2 and ≥23.2 (p=0.043). On multivariate analysis, ALI score < 23.2 remained significantly associated with worse outcome.

Conclusion: Lower ALI (<23.2) was significantly associated with worse overall survival in metastatic NSCLC. The assessment of the ALI is inexpensive and widely available; it could help in identifying patients with poor prognosis in clinical routine practice.