The value of cellular components of blood in the setting of trimodal therapy for esophageal cancer

Background Inflammation status plays an important role in the natural history of malignancy. Consequently, hematological markers of systemic inflammation may predict prognosis in neoplasms. This study evaluated the value of cellular blood components changes during neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by esophagectomy for cancer in predicting prognosis. Methods A cohort of 149 patients was analyzed. Cellular components of blood were assessed before neoadjuvant therapy (A); before surgery (B); and 3 to 5 months after surgery (C); for the following outcomes: pathological response, overall survival (OS), and disease‐free survival (DFS). Univariate and multivariate Cox regression models were applied to evaluate the independent prognostic significance of blood count variables. Results Low hematocrit (Ht) (C) (HR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.79‐0.92) and high neutrophil‐to‐lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (C) (HR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.07‐1.10) were related to poor OS. Low Hb (C) (HR, 0.72; 95% CI, 0.58‐0.88), red cell distribution width (RDW) (C‐A) (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.02‐1.31), and NLR (C‐A) (1.06; 95% CI, 1.03‐1.09) were related to poor DFS. RDW (B‐A) (HR, 1.15; 95% CI, 1.08‐1.22), RDW (C) (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.04‐1.2), NLR (C) (HR, 1.12; 95% CI, 1.08‐1.17) were related to systemic recurrence. Conclusion Variables of routine blood count are easily assessable and their changes throughout trimodal therapy for esophageal carcinoma provide important information for cancer patient's prognosis.