Abstract:Objective To explore the relationship between neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and clinicopathological features in patients with gastric cancer. Methods A total of 706 patients with gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy were selected from the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University from August 2016 to December 2017. Patients were divided into high NLR group and low NLR group according to NLR value. The results of the first blood routine test were collected, including neutrophil count and lymphocyte count. The patient’s sex, age, BMI, T stage (invasion depth), N stage, M stage, pTNM, tissue differential type, tissue differential degree, tumor location, number of detected lymph nodes, number of metastatic lymph nodes, maximum diameter of tumor and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) were recorded. Univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were used to analyze the influencing factors of NLR distribution in gastric cancer patients. Results The difference was not statistically significant in sex, age, tissue differential type, tissue differential degree, M-stage, tumor location and CEA compared with NLR (P > 0.05). BMI, T stage, N stage, pTNM and maximum diameter of tumor were significantly different from NLR (P < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that the maximum diameter of tumor was an independent risk factor affecting NLR (P = 0.020) and the risk of NLR in high NLR group was 1.790 times higher than that in low NLR group (95% CI: 1.094, 2.928). Conclusions Preoperative NLR has a suggestive effect on the depth of tumor invasion and lymph node involvement. It is also affected by BMI. The maximum diameter of tumor can be used as an independent risk of affecting NLR in the multivariate analysis.