Table 3. Univariate and multivariate analysis of prognostic factors of overall and progression free survival (Training Set).

			OVERALL SURVIVAL					PROGRESSION-FREE SURVIVAL
			UNIVARIATE ANALYSIS		MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS			UNIVARIATE ANALYSIS		MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS
Variable		N = 118	Hazard Ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Hazard Ratio(95% CI)	P-value	N = 48	Hazard Ratio (95% CI)	P-value	Hazard Ratio (95% CI)	P-value
Albumin, g/L	≥35/<35 g/L	18/42	2.4 (1.5–3.9)	<0.001*	2.3 (1.2–4.4)	0.01*	23/26	1.8 (0.9–3.6)	0.08
LDH, IU/L	<450/≥450	62/15	5.2 (2.5–10.7)	<0.001*	3.2 (1.4–7.3)	0.005*	35/7	3.6 (1.5–8.7)	0.04*	3.11 (1.3–9.0)	0.009*
ECOG PS	0–1/≥2	86/29	4.5 (2.6–7.6)	<0.001*	2.9 (1.4–6.4)	0.006*	45/3	2.3 (0.6–7.9)	0.12
N of metastatic sites	<2/≥3	97/21	1.1 (0.6–1.9)	0.78			42/7	0.6 (0.2–1.8)	0.64
N of previous chemotherapy lines	<2/≥3	65/53	1.7 (1.1–2.6)	0.02*			31/17	0.7 (0.3–1.6)	0.75
Hemoglobin, g/L	≥12/<12	49/69	2.4 (1.5–4.0)	0.01*			22/27	1.7 (0.8–3.6)	0.13
NLR	<5/≥5	70/43	2.5 (1.6–3.9)	<0.001*	2.0 (1.0–4.3)	0.04*	34/15	1.8 (0.9–3.6)	0.11
PLR	<300/≥300	74/39	1.4 (0.9–2.2)	0.11			31/18	1.5 (0.8–3.1)	0.21
Delta NLR	Normalized/persistently abnormal	32/16	3.6 (1.7–7.6)	0.001*	2.8 (1.1–7.4)	0.03*	32/16	3.0 (1.4–6.4)	0.04*	3.5 (1.3–7.2)	0.008*

Abbreviations: LDH, Lactate dehydrogenase; ECOG PS, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status; NLR, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio; PLR, platelet to lymphocyte ratio: Delta NLR: NLR changes following 2 cycles of treatment as previously categorized by Kao et al. 2010 (Ref. 23). Associations reaching statistical significance (p<0.05) are marked with an asterisk (*). Categorization of LDH, haemoglobin and albumin was carried out using clinically employed cutoff values (Arkenau et al. 2008, Ref. 8). To avoid colinearity bias, the independent effect of NLR and Delta NLR was tested in two independent Cox models.