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Objective: To assess the prognostic role of pretreatment lymphocyte percentage (LY%) for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: A large‐scale prospective cohort study between July 2002 and March 2021 was conducted. Propensity score‐matched (PSM) analysis and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) analysis were performed to adjust for potential confounders. Using random survival forest (RSF), the relative importance of pretreatment LY% in prognosis prediction was also assessed. Results: A total of 743 patients were enrolled and followed up (median: 2.75 years, interquartile range: 1.25–4.42 years). A high pretreatment LY% was significantly associated with better disease‐specific survival of patients with OSCC (Hazard ratio [HR] = 0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.42, 0.84). The same tendency was observed in PSM (HR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.38, 0.85) and IPTW analysis (HR = 0.57, 95% CI: 0.40, 0.82). RSF showed that LY% ranked the fifth among importance ranking of all prognostic factors. Conclusion: Pretreatment LY% showed a moderate predictive ability, suggesting it might be a valuable tool to predict prognosis for patients with OSCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the prognostic value of systemic inflammatory biomarkers (albumin/globulin ratio [AGR], neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio [NLR], and platelet/lymphocyte ratio [PLR]) in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and further develop a novel prognostic score (AGR‐NLR). Methods: A large‐scale prospective study enrolling 792 eligible patients from December 2002 to June 2018 was carried out at the First Affiliated Hospital of Fujian Medical University. Three multivariate Cox regression models were performed to assess the association of overall survival (OS) with systemic inflammatory biomarkers, quantified by Akaike information criterion (AIC). Then, a novel AGR‐NLR score was established and incorporated into a prognostic nomogram. Results: In the univariate analysis, the increased AGR was associated with a reduced risk of death. Conversely, the higher NLR and PLR, the worse the OS. In the multivariate Cox regression models, AGR and NLR were stably independent prognostic indicators in all models, with Model 2 showing a lowest AIC (AGR: HR = 0.56, 95%CI: 0.41–0.78; NLR: HR = 1.80, 95%CI: 1.07–3.04). Then, a novel AGR‐NLR score was established, which showed a more excellent performance than either AGR or NLR alone (area under curve [AUC]: 0.589, 0.559, and 0.556, respectively). The C‐index of the nomogram based on AGR‐NLR was superior to that of traditional TNM staging system (C‐index: 0.658 versus. 0.596, p <.001). Similar results were also showed by decision curve analysis, indicating the nomogram had more positive net benefit compared to TNM staging system. Conclusion: The novel AGR‐NLR score is strongly associated with outcome in patients with OSCC and could be serve as a useful tool to accurately predict the OS of OSCC patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate the prognostic performance of a novel nutritional risk score based on serum iron, hemoglobin, and body mass index (BMI) in oral cancer patients, and to predict the response to chemotherapy in patients with different nutritional status. Methods: X‐tile analysis was performed to determine the optimal cutoff values of serum iron, hemoglobin, and BMI. A nutritional risk score was established by using the HR values of serum iron, hemoglobin, and BMI. Kaplan–Meier curve and multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to evaluate the prognostic value of the nutritional risk score in overall survival (OS) and oral cancer‐specific survival (OCSS). Results: Serum iron, hemoglobin, and body mass index were all inversely related to the prognosis of oral cancer. The adjusted HR of serum iron, hemoglobin, and BMI were 1.562, 1.886, and 1.465 for OS, and 1.653, 1.865, and 1.443 for OCSS. Patients with higher nutritional risk score had a poorer OS and OCSS. Additionally, chemotherapy was only associated with improved OCSS in patients with the lowest nutritional risk score, but not in patients with higher one. Conclusions: Nutritional risk score is of prognostic value in oral cancer patients. Favorable response to chemotherapy may only be observed in well‐nourished oral cancer patients with lower nutritional risk score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Limited evidence exists on the roles of serum copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) in oral cancer risk. We aimed to preliminarily explore the association between serum Cu and Zn levels and oral cancer risk with relatively large‐scale samples. Methods: Serum Cu and Zn levels of 344 oral cancer patients and 1,122 matched healthy controls in this case–control study were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS). Results: Restricted cubic spline revealed the U‐shaped relationship between serum Cu or Zn levels and the risk of oral cancer. Serum deficient or elevated levels of Cu were significantly associated with the risk of oral cancer: The ORs were 1.38 (95% CI: 1.01–1.89) and 2.82 (95% CI: 1.60–4.98), respectively. The positive association of serum low or high levels of Zn with oral cancer risk was also observed: The ORs were 2.72 (95% CI: 1.60–4.62) and 12.41 (95% CI: 9.09–16.93), respectively. Additionally, there were multiplicative interactions between the aforementioned trace elements and smoking. Conclusions: This preliminary study suggests that both serum excess and deficient levels of Cu or Zn were significant correlation with oral cancer risk, which may provide a new insight on the roles of serum Cu and Zn in oral cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]