Meta-Analysis of Pretreatment Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Breast Cancer Patients

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 56 studies involving 16,539 breast cancer patients treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. The study, authored by Ziqian Zhao and published on figshare in May 2026, synthesized pooled hazard ratios and odds ratios to evaluate the prognostic value of the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio for survival outcomes and treatment response.

Use Cases

• Validate the prognostic value of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) based on pooled hazard ratios for overall survival.
• Assess the relationship between pretreatment NLR and pathological complete response (pCR) rates based on synthesized odds ratios.
• Investigate heterogeneity in biomarker cutoffs and their impact on prognostic stability based on the sensitivity analyses described.

Strengths

• Analysis is based on a substantial patient cohort of 16,539 individuals from 56 studies.
• Provides specific pooled effect sizes, such as HR=1.89 for overall survival and OR=0.50 for pathological complete response.
• Includes sensitivity analyses restricted to multivariable-adjusted estimates, as noted in the results.

Limitations

• The primary data file is a 17.0 KB DOCX document, which is a summary report rather than a raw dataset.
• Row count and column-level documentation for the underlying study data are unknown.
• The description notes substantial heterogeneity and inconsistent cutoffs across the included studies.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Ziqian Zhao.

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of studies from PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library.

Time Range

Studies published up to April 2026.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 04:52:34.