The following is a summary of “Investigation of association between clinically significant prostate cancer, obesity and platelet to-lymphocyte ratio and neutrophil -to-lymphocyte ratio,” published in the October 2024 issue of Urology by Dahan et al. 

Inflammatory markers are elevated in prostate cancer (PCa), but their link to smoking, obesity, and PCa is unclear. 

Researchers conducted a prospective study analyzing the link between neutrophil and platelet counts indexed to lymphocyte count (NLR & PLR), and clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa), adjusting for systemic inflammation. 

They evaluated NLR and PLR in 443 patients. CsPCa (Gleason ≥ 4 + 3) differences were assessed using chi-square, ANOVA, or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Logistic regression adjusted for smoking, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and either body mass index or waist-to-hip ratio to examine the inflammation-csPCa relationship. 

The results showed no significant differences in factors such as plateletcrit, NLR, and PLR between patients with csPCa and non-significant PCa. After adjustment, no associations were found between these factors and csPCa. Exploratory analysis also revealed no link between inflammatory markers and PSA levels > 10 ng/mL, and different NLR cutoffs did not provide clinically meaningful predictive values for csPCa. 

Investigators concluded that, unlike previous studies, there was no significant association between readily available blood markers of inflammation and PCa aggressiveness. Further research is needed to clarify the role of inflammation in PCa. 

Source: bmcurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12894-024-01617-2