Systemic Inflammatory Response as a Prognostic Factor in Breast Cancer. Part II. Hematological Markers of Inflammation

Abstract

Chronic inflammation is one of the recognized factors contributing to the onset and progression of malignant neoplasms. At the systemic level, a chronic inflammatory process is accompanied by an increased levels of inflammatory mediators and a change in hematological parameters of peripheral blood. According to numerous clinical studies, the change in the ratio of blood cell populations in cancer patients is an independent prognostic factor in malignant tumors of various localizations. This review is devoted to hematological parameters of the systemic inflammatory response (SIR) in breast cancer (BC). The review presents the characteristics of blood cells used for calculations of hematological indices (neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, platelets); approaches for assessing SIR using these indices (NLR, PLR, LMR, etc.); comparative analysis of data on the association of the hematological indices with the clinical and morphological features of BC, patient survival and tumor response to chemotherapy. The data indicating the benefit of SIR hematological markers investigation during monitoring after treatment are summarized. Complex algorithms, including clinical, morphological and hematological factors, which are proposed to improve the quality of prognosis assessment, are considered. The information accumulated to date suggests that hematological indices reflecting SIR activity in BC patients can serve as additional independent prognostic factors. The development of the prognostic algorithms that are informative for certain clinical groups of BC patients is a promising area of research.