Serum Albumin and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio, Two Independent Factor Predicting Survival in Patients with Follicular Lymphoma: A Multi-Institutional Retrospective Cohort of 741 FL, from the Latin American Lymphoproliferative Study Group (GELL)

Introduction: The neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) is a measure of systemic inflammation that appears prognostic in different cancers. Although the exact mechanism remains to be elucidated, reduced lymphocyte intra tumor infiltration coupled with the formation of neutrophil extracellular traps (or NETosis) have been postulated as endogenous mechanisms for tissue damage and inflammation. Along this line, serum albumin has also been studied as a biomarker of inflammation and has been associated to prognosis in certain cancers. We have previously reported on the prognostic value of the NLR and serum albumin in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (Villela, ASH meeting, 2019; Castro, ASH meeting, 2019) and peripheral T-cell lymphoma, not otherwise specified (Idrobo, ASH meeting, 2019), but nothing on follicular lymphoma (FL) yet. Therefore, we aim to investigate the role of different biomarkers on the prognosis of patients with FL diagnosed and managed in Latin America.