Study of the response rate and neutrophil lymphocyte ratio in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy

The neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is associated with the outcomes of some cancer patients such as those with digestive cancer. Herein, we examined the relationship between the response rate following neoadjuvant chemotherapy and NLR in breast cancer patients. We recruited 19 primary breast cancer patients who were administered neoadjuvant chemotherapy. We evaluated the effects of this treatment and classified the patients into responder (CR and PR) and non-responder (SD and PD) groups. We measured the value of NLR before or at the start of nab-PTX treatment, and 7 days after nab-PTX (1-i) and nab-PTX (4-3) treatment. The average age was 58.6 years. The responder and non-responder groups comprised 14 and 5 cases, respectively. The average values of NLR before or at the start of the nab-PTX phase were 4.33 and 5.05 in the responderand non-respondergroups, respectively.Theaverage NLRvalues 7daysafternab-PTX (i-i) were 6.72and 5.6Oin the responder and non-responder groups, respectively. The NLR values 7 days after nab-PTX (4-3) were 2.40 and 2.65 for the responder and non-responder groups, respectively. There were no significant differences between the responder and non-responder groups for each treatment phase.