Introduction Systemic inflammatory responses are closely associated with cancer initiation, progression and metastasis, consequently, inflammatory markers, including the neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), have been studied in many cancers. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of the NLR and PLR as a response indicator to the neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in high grade serous localized ovarian cancer (HGSOC)

Methods A total of 30 patients who had received NACT followed by interval debulking surgery were eligible for retrospective analysis. The pretreatment and post-treatment PLR, NLR in all patients were calculated based on complete blood counts

Results The median age of our patient was 50 ±9 years, 10% were stage II and 90% were stage III the pretreatment NLR and PLR were correlated with response to NACT, Patients with lower NLR<2.5 and PLR<185 had a significantly better response rate to NACT versus those with a higher NLR and PLR. the decrease in NLR and PLR rates after chemotherapy can be considered as an early prediction of response to treatment. PLR and NLR are high in the presence of residual tumor after surgery. PLR > 200 and NLR> 2.6 were biomarkers of suboptimal surgery. PLR and NLR levels are well correlated with serum CA125 levels.

Conclusion/Implications Our results suggested that NLR and PLR were well-connected with response to NACT in patients with HGSOC. As a response indicator, NLR and PLR may predict benefit from chemotherapy. Relationship between NLR, PLR and CA125 may provide new information about the pathogenesis of ovarian cancer.