The role of monocyte to lymphocyt ratio in predictingmetastasis in rectal cancer

Aim: A lot of studies are being carried out to predict recurrence and metastasis in rectal cancer, which is a common type of cancerin general surgery practice. It is thought that MLR (monocyte to lymphocyte ratio) , an indice developed by division of monocytecount by lymphocyte count, may be a good marker to reflect the degree of tumor progression and predict prognosis. In our study, weinvestigated the role of MLR in predicting metastasis in rectal cancer. Materials and Methods: Fifty-seven patients diagnosed with rectal cancer in the Abant Izzet Baysal University general surgeryclinic between 2012 and 2016 were retrospectively investigated. Albumin, CRP(C reactive protein), Platelet, Neutrophil, Lymphocyte,Monocyte values were obtained as the inflammatory markers in the blood count test of the patients before neoadjuvant treatment. Results: In this study, 25 patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and underwent full postoperative follow-up wereevaluated. Eight of these 25 patients had metastasis until June 2019. There was a significant difference in monocyte and MLRvalues between groups with and without metastasis. Conclusion: This study is presented as a preliminary study. In our study, we showed that MLR value which measured beforeneoadjuvant therapy in rectum cancer patients may be useful in predicting metastasis development.