Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Sep 7, 2020; 26(33): 5022-5049
Published online Sep 7, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i33.5022
Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio and albumin bilirubin grade in hepatocellular carcinoma: A systematic review
Ayman Bannaga, Ramesh P Arasaradnam
Ayman Bannaga, Ramesh P Arasaradnam, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Coventry CV2 2DX, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Ayman Bannaga, Ramesh P Arasaradnam, Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7HL, West Midlands, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Bannaga A was involved in the design, data curation, data analysis, and generating the first draft; Arasaradnam RP supervised the project and edited the draft for intellectual input.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ayman Bannaga, MBBS, MRCP, Research Fellow, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, Clifford Bridge Road, Coventry CV2 2DX, West Midlands, United Kingdom. aymanbannaga@yahoo.com
Received: June 26, 2020
Peer-review started: June 26, 2020
First decision: July 28, 2020
Revised: August 10, 2020
Accepted: August 25, 2020
Article in press: August 25, 2020
Published online: September 7, 2020
Core Tip

Core tip: This review examined the current evidence over the last five years concerning the use of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and albumin bilirubin (ALBI) as prognostic indicators in Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) from a clinical point of view. We also validated NLR and ALBI as prognostic indicators for HCC in a small cohort of patients in our centre. NLR and ALBI provide ways to prognosticate for HCC patients and should be used in addition to other conventional methods to aid in clinical judgment.