Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and lactate dehydrogenase as biomarkers for urothelial cancer treated with immunotherapy

Purpose To identify patients with metastatic urothelial cancer (mUC) unlikely to benefit from immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Methods/Patients We explored the predictive and prognostic values of baseline neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), with cut-offs >= 3 and >= 5, and of a urothelial immune prognostic index (UIPI, based on increased NLR and LDH), on 146 patients. Results NLR and UIPI significantly predicted progressive disease and progression-free survival with both cut-offs (p = 0.0069, p = 0.0034, p = 0.0160, p = 0.0063; p < 0.001, p = 0.021, p = 0.014, p = 0.026; for NLR-3, NLR-5, UIPI-3, UIPI-5, respectively) and overall survival when NLR cut-off was >= 5 (p = 0.03 and p = 0.024, for NLR-5 and UIPI-5, respectively). Conclusions NLR-5 deserves prospective validation to identify mUC patients with poor prognosis following ICIs.