Prediction to the prognosis of children with neuroblastoma by nomogram based on the first-diagnosed inflammatory markers.

BACKGROUND

Patients with high-risk neuroblastoma (NB) have a poor prognosis. The prognostic significance of inflammatory biomarker-based nomograms for children with NB has not been previously studied.

METHODS

Part of patients diagnosed with NB in our center from January 2016 to March 2022 were included in the study. Inflammatory biomarkers were primary outcome measures, including C-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII). Univariate and multivariate survival analyses were performed to assess the prognostic value of these indicators for overall survival (OS) in NB children, showing the Kaplan-Meier survival curves and plotting the nomogram. C-index were used to detect predictability.

RESULTS

93 NB patients were retrospectively analyzed. CRP, ferritin, NLR, PLR, and SII were significantly associated with OS of NB patients, while LMR were found to be not predictive of OS for NB patients. The established nomogram is well-calibrated, and the C-index is 0.731.

CONCLUSION

Survival analysis found part of inflammatory biomarkers related to the prognosis of NB. The nomogram could be used as a convenient predictive tool in clinical practice to evaluate the prognosis of NB children at first diagnosis.