ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1632597
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Emerging Role of Biomarker Mutations in Early Stage Non-small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) ManagementView all 4 articles
Preoperative absolute neutrophil count: a potential indicator for prognosis in carcinoembryonic antigen normal stage I non-small cell lung cancer
Provisionally accepted
- 1Hainan Hospital of Chinese PLA General Hospital, Sanya, China
- 2Tongji University Dongfang Hospital, Shanghai, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is still the most valuable tumor marker in the diagnosis and prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients; however, its application is largely limited by its low sensitivity in stage I cases. Research on reliable and highly cost-effective prognostic indicators in CEA normal stage I NSCLC is still needed. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in CEA normal stage I NSCLC patients. The prognostic value of peripheral blood cell fractions, including the absolute neutrophil count (ANC), was tested, and the differences in clinical features among the ANC-low or ANC-high subgroups were checked. The disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) differences in these subgroups were run by Kaplan‒ Meier analysis, and the risk factors for survival were validated by a Cox proportional hazards model. Results: Among the tested peripheral blood cell fractions, only ANC was found to be a significant factor in predicting DFS (P=0.011) and OS (P=0.043). The ANC displayed a positive correlation with other fractions, including the absolute lymphocyte count (R=0.26, P<0.001), absolute monocyte count (R=0.56, P<0.001), and platelet count (R=0.29, P<0.001). With a cutoff at 3879/mm3, 83.72% (252/301) of patients were divided into ANC-low and 16.28% (49/301) into ANC-high. Patients in the ANC-low group also presented a superior DFS (log rank=8.64, P=0.003) and OS (log rank=9.86, P=0.002) than those in the ANC-high group; however, the ANC level was not validated as an independent prognostic factor for both DFS and OS. Conclusion: Compared to other peripheral blood cell fractions, preoperative ANC was found to be a useful prognostic indicator in CEA normal stage I NSCLC; however, it was not validated as an independent prognostic factor and additional studies for its role in prognosis for these patients are still needed in future.
Keywords: lung cancer, Carcinoembryonic Antigen, Neutrophil count, Disease-Free Survival, overall survival
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 09 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Liu, Cui, Ye, Li and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Bing Yan, y_bing41@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.