{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,4]],"date-time":"2026-08-04T16:22:18Z","timestamp":1785860538939,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":37,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,12]],"date-time":"2024-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1707696000000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,12]],"date-time":"2024-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1707696000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["BMC Cancer"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>Studies have shown that the absolute lymphocyte count (ALC) and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) are related to the outcomes in patients with breast cancer receiving specific chemotherapies. However, the reports have focussed on the initial blood test and there is a lack of evidence or data to support that dynamic changes of ALC or NLR are associated with the patients\u2019 survival outcomes.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>We retrospectively reviewed electronic medical records from patients with breast cancer treated with eribulin from 2015 to 2019 at our institution. Blood test data were available prior to starting eribulin (baseline), and at 1, 3 and 6 months after initiating eribulin. We classified the patients into ALC and NLR high and low groups using the following cut-offs: 1000\/\u00b5l for ALC and 3 for NLR. We defined ALC and NLR trends as increasing or decreasing compared with the initial data. We assessed the associations between the ALC and NLR with progression-free survival and overall survival.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>There were 136 patients with breast cancer treated with eribulin. Of these patients, 60 had complete blood tests and follow-up data. Neither a high ALC nor a low baseline NLR was associated with the survival outcome. One month after initiating eribulin treatment, a high ALC and a low NLR were significantly associated with longer progression-free survival (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.044 for each). Three months after initiating eribulin, a high ALC was significantly associated with better overall survival (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.006). A high NLR at 3 or 6 months after initiating eribulin was associated with worse overall survival (<jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.017 and <jats:italic>p<\/jats:italic> = 0.001, respectively). The ALC and NLR trends across times were not associated with survivals.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec><jats:sec>\n                <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                <jats:p>We showed that 1, 3 and 6 months after initiating eribulin, a high ALC and a low NLR may be related to the patients\u2019 survival outcomes. The ALC and NLR trends were not associated with survival. Accordingly, we believe patients who maintain a high ALC and a low NLR may have better clinical outcomes after initiating eribulin.<\/jats:p>\n              <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.1186\/s12885-024-11923-5","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,12]],"date-time":"2024-02-12T10:02:23Z","timestamp":1707732143000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Monitoring trends in the absolute lymphocyte count and the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio in patients with breast cancer receiving eribulin"],"prefix":"10.1186","volume":"24","author":[{"given":"Meng-Xia","family":"Su","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hsiang-Wen","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hanh T. 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The written informed consent has been waived and the study protocol and implementation procedure were approved by the Research Ethics Committee (Institutional Review Board [IRB] of China Medical University Hospital (CMUH): CMUH109-REC2-122). Accordingly, all procedures involving human participants were performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee, the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki, Good Clinical Practices guideline, governmental laws and regulations, and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Importantly, this study meets the criteria of waving the inform consent because we used \u201cde-identified\u201d data, which were retrospectively collected and processed by the information technology (IT) center through formal application process in this specific hospital upon the request of the available reginal IRB. Specifically, the used data cannot be identified for the personal information after being processed by the IT center. In Taiwan, it is emphasized that \u201c as for the personal data regarding medical records, medical treatment, genetics, sexual life, health examinations and criminal records, which were prepared or collected by public agencies or medical\/academic research institutes for medical, health or crime prevention purposes, only the data meet the following criteria can be used to fulfill the necessity of analysis purpose or academic research: data cannot be identified for the personal information after being processed by the providers or which were collected through deidentify the personal information based on the method of disclosure.\u201d Thus, the aforementioned data can be used without having inform consents from patients or individuals, upon the \u201cPersonal Data Protection Law\u201d announced by the Committee of Personal Data Protection, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, and approved by CMUH IRB accordingly.","order":2,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Ethics approval and consent to participate"}},{"value":"Not applicable.","order":3,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Consent for publication"}},{"value":"The authors declare no competing interests.","order":4,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"195"}}