Neutrophil-Lymphocyte Ratio: Adjunct Prognostic Biomarker in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) – A Study in Delhi NCR

Background: Inflammation is now recognized as the seventh hallmark of cancer. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio holds promise as an adjunct biomarker in various cancers. Materials and methods: 32 biopsy-confirmed OSCC patients and 32 healthy controls were enrolled in this prospective case-control study and venous blood samples were obtained and CBC reports were thus used for analysis of various haematological parameters such as NLR, using t-test, and Mann-Whitney U test using STATA. Results: The median NLR was found to be raised in OSCC patients as compared to healthy controls and the difference was found to be statistically significant ((Median:3.83(2.31-5.56) vs. 2.14(1.80-2.66), p=0.0006) Conclusions : NLR can be used as a useful tool for clinicians as an adjunct biomarker for the prognostication and potentially help in the diagnosis of OSCC in screening. Future studies should include a larger sample size and should be longitudinal in nature as well as should explore differences in NLR in benign, premalignant and malignant cases. Key words: Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, biomarker, oral squamous cell carcinoma, cancer, hematological