Research Progress on Peripheral Blood Inflammatory Markers for Prognostic Evaluation in Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Objective: In this review, we summarized recent progress in research on peripheral blood inflammatory markers, including the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), and systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), for prognostic evaluation in ovarian cancer (OC), and assessed their predictive value and clinical application potential. Mechanism: Chronic inflammation shapes the tumor microenvironment (TME) and drives the progression of OC. Neutrophils, platelets, and monocytes exert pro-tumor inflammatory effects, whereas lymphocytes exert antitumor immune effects. Peripheral blood inflammatory markers (NLR, PLR, LMR, SII, and SIRI) reflect the imbalance between inflammation and immune surveillance, thereby influencing tumor behavior and patient prognosis. Findings in Brief: Studies have found that high NLR, PLR, and SII are associated with advanced tumor stage, greater tumor burden, and poor prognosis, whereas high LMR predicts better prognosis. SIRI shows limited prognostic value for survival outcomes due to insufficient evidence and inconsistent results. Conclusions: This review demonstrated that NLR, PLR, LMR, and SII are promising, easily accessible, and noninvasive prognostic biomarkers for OC. Their application may assist in risk stratification and clinical decision-making. However, further large-scale, standardized studies are required to validate the clinical utility of SIRI and to establish unified cutoff values for these markers.