Lymphopenia is a useful predictive factor in several
cancers. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic value of
lymphopenia in patients with
esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).A retrospective analysis of 307 consecutive patients who had undergone
esophagectomy for ESCC was conducted. In our study, a lymphocyte count (LC) of fewer than 1.0 Giga/L was defined as
lymphopenia. Kaplan-Meier method was used to calculate the
cancer-specific survival (CSS). Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the prognostic factors. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was also plotted to verify the accuracy of LC for CSS prediction.The mean LC was 1.55 ± 0.64 Giga/L (range 0.4-3.7 Giga/L). The incidence of
lymphopenia (LC < 1.0 Giga/L) was 16.6% (51/307). Patients with
lymphopenia (LC < 1.0 Giga/L) had a significantly shorter 5-year CSS (21.6% vs 43.8%, P = 0.004). On multivariate analysis,
lymphopenia (LC < 1.0 Giga/L) was an independent prognostic factor in patients with ESCC (P = 0.013).
Lymphopenia had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.579 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.100-2.265] for CSS. ROC curve demonstrated that
lymphopenia (LC < 1.0 Giga/L) predicts survival with a sensitivity of 86.2% and a specificity of 27.2%.
Lymphopenia (LC < 1.0 Giga/L) is still an independent predictive factor for long-term survival in patients with ESCC.