Table 1.
Characteristics at baseline of 309 newly diagnosed MM patients
| Characteristic | Patients N=309 (100 %) |
NLR <2 N=165 (100 %) |
NLR ≥2 N=144 (100 %) |
p value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Median age, years (range) | 63 (28–88) | 63 (28–88) | 63 (31–88) | 0.85 |
| Males, N (%) | 161 (52) | 88 (53) | 73 (51) | 0.81 |
| Paraproteins (isotype), N (%) | ||||
| Immunoglobulin G | 216 (70) | 120 (73) | 96 (67) | 0.30 |
| Immunoglobulin A | 58 (19) | 26 (16) | 32 (22) | 0.23 |
| Immunoglobulin D-M | 4 (1) | 2 (1) | 2 (1) | 0.56 |
| Light chain only | 31 (10) | 17 (10) | 14 (10) | 0.84 |
| WBC, cells/mmc (mean±SD) | 5730±261 | 5654±167 | 7375±294 | <0.0001 |
| ANC, cells/mmc (mean±SD) | 3370±194 | 2771±96 | 5298±239 | <0.0001 |
| ALC, cells/mmc (mean±SD) | 1736±69 | 2271±65 | 1425±63 | <0.0001 |
| NLR(range) | 1.9 (0.4–15.9) | 1.2 (0.4–1.9) | 4.5 (2–16) | |
| Cytogenetics (FISH, IWMG criteria) | ||||
| Not available | 143 (46) | 74 (45) | 69 (48) | 0.68 |
| Favourable | 137 (44) | 79 (48) | 58 (40) | 0.19 |
| Adverse | 29 (9) | 12 (7) | 17 (12) | 0.19 |
| Serum albumin, g/dL (mean±SD)beta-2 | 4.0±0.21 | 4.4±0.4 | 3.9±0.22 | 0.95 |
| Microglobulin, mg/L(mean±SD)ESR | 4.0±2.6 | 4.5±5 | 3.9±2.6 | 0.48 |
| mm/h(mean±SD) | 64±5.6 | 66.1±3.6 | 71.1±9.9 | 0.59 |
| Stage ISS, N (%) | ||||
| I | 95 (31) | 49 (30) | 46 (32) | 0.79 |
| II | 106 (34) | 59 (36) | 47 (33) | 0.66 |
| III | 108 (35) | 57 (34) | 51 (35) | 0.95 |
| Treatment upfront, N (%) | ||||
| Proteasome inhibitors—group 1 | 157 (51) | 74 (45) | 83 (58) | 0.03 |
| IMiDs—group 2 | 91 (29) | 56 (34) | 35 (24) | 0.07 |
| Proteasome inhibitors+IMiDs—group 3 | 61 (20) | 35 (21) | 26 (18) | 0.6 |
| High-dose melphalan and ASCT | 113 (37) | 61 (37) | 52 (36) | 0.94 |
| Overall response rate, N (%) | ||||
| N (%) | 275 (89) | 150 (91) | 125 (87) | 0.35 |
| CR/VGPR/PR Proteasome inhibitors—group 1 | 24/25/87 | 16/9/41 | 8/16/46 | |
| CR/VGPR/PR IMiDs—group 2 | 17/11/50 | 10/9/30 | 7/2/20 | |
| CR/VGPR/PR Proteasome inhibitors+IMiDs—group 3 | 18/4/39 | 12/4/19 | 6/0/20 |
ISS international staging system, IMiDs immunomodulatory drugs (thalidomide or lenalidomide), WBC white blood cell count, ANC absolute neutrophil count, ALC absolute lymphocyte count, SD standard deviation, CR complete remission, VGPR very good partial remission, PR partial remission