Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41164205›Full record

ArticleTherapeutic advances in medical oncology2025

A retrospective analysis exploring the association of pretreatment neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and immune checkpoint inhibitor outcomes in patients with advanced NSCLC and liver metastases.

Maisam Makarem, Tuan Hoang, Mitchell J Elliott, Andrew Rabinovitch, Katrina Hueniken, Shelley Kuang, Sabine Schmid, Ming Sound Tsao, Tracy McGaha, Pamela S Ohashi and 6 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Therapeutic advances in medical oncology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

16 authors.

Maisam MakaremPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Tuan HoangPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3204-0579
Mitchell J ElliottPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Andrew RabinovitchPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Katrina HuenikenPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Shelley KuangPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Sabine SchmidPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Ming Sound TsaoPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9160-5405
Tracy McGahaPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Pamela S OhashiPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Frances A ShepherdPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Penelope A BradburyPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Geoffrey LiuPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Natasha B LeighlPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Adrian SacherPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, 610 University Ave., Toronto, ON M5G 2M9, Canada.
Sally C M LauPrincess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, 610 University Ave., Toronto, ON M5G 2M9, Canada.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Liver metastases (LM) in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) are associated with poor clinical outcomes. The tolerogenic immune microenvironment in the liver may contribute to inferior response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). We hypothesized that the presence of LM may be associated with an expanded peripheral myeloid population, using the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) as a surrogate in patients treated with ICIs. Objectives: We evaluated the impact of LM and NLR on clinical outcomes in patients with advanced NSCLC treated with ICIs. Design: This was a retrospective analysis conducted at a single cancer center. Methods: We reviewed the records of 324 patients with advanced NSCLC treated with programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) inhibitors as monotherapy or in combination with cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) inhibitors. Clinical outcomes, including progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS), were evaluated among patients with and without LM in NLR-High (NLR ⩾ 5) and NLR-Low (NLR < 5) subgroups. Results: Patients with LM had significantly higher median NLR compared to patients without LM (median 7.3 vs 4.5, Conclusion: Patients with LM who are NLR-High had the poorest clinical outcomes to ICI, and this appeared to be irrespective of PD-L1 status. Ongoing translational work will provide further insight into tumor myeloid subpopulations that may correlate with treatment resistance.

Indexed as

immune checkpoint inhibitorsliver metastasesNLRNSCLC

Identifiers

PMID41164205
PMCPMC12559634

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.