Abstract

During the process of carcinogenesis, inflammation originating in the tumor or its microenvironment promotes tumor growth. An elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) has been considered a biomarker associated with reduced survival in several types of cancer. A retrospective study was conducted and the results of 49 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) biopsies from 2012 to 2017 were reviewed. The patients were divided into two groups: those with nonbasal subtype TNBC and those with basal-like TNBC. To differentiate TNBC tumors by subtype, cytokeratin 5/6 (CK5/6) expression was assessed. The Chi-square test was used to analyze the association between the classical clinicopathological parameters and these two groups, revealing a statistically significant relationship with histological grade. For overall survival, the Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze the data. The difference in survival was compared by univariate analysis. Patients with elevated tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and a NLR less than 3 had prolonged survival. NLR is a cost-effective and reliable tool that can be exploited in a wide number of scenarios during daily clinical practice.