Annals of Human Biology · Available online 14 Jul 2026 · In press · DOI 10.1080/03014460.2026.2669070
Qunyan Yao, Hui Zhang, Jinhua Jiang, Feng Yuan
Background Chronic inflammation is implicated in lung cancer pathogenesis. Inflammation-related haematologic indices are accessible biomarkers, but their associations with lung cancer risk and mortality in the general US population are not well-established.Aim To investigate the associations of five inflammation-related haematologic indices (NLR, MLR, NMLR, ALI, PIV) with lung cancer risk and all-cause mortality among US adults.Subjects and methods This population-based study analysed 47,862 adults from the 1999–2018 NHANES. Lung cancer was self-reported. Associations with lung cancer risk in the overall study population and with all-cause mortality among participants with lung cancer (followed through 2019) were assessed using weighted logistic and Cox regression models, respectively. Sensitivity analyses, including machine learning, were performed.Results Among participants, 114 had lung cancer. Higher NLR, MLR, NMLR, and PIV were significantly associated with increased lung cancer risk (e.g. per 1-SD increase: MLR OR = 1.50) and all-cause mortality (e.g. MLR HR = 1.40). Conversely, higher ALI was associated with decreased risk (OR = 0.58) and mortality (HR = 0.53). MLR showed the highest discriminative ability for risk (AUC = 0.715). Sensitivity analyses confirmed robustness.Conclusion Inflammation-related haematologic indices are significantly associated with lung cancer risk and prognosis. These low-cost biomarkers show potential for risk stratification and prognostic assessment.
Abstract from DOAJ. Public domain (CC0 1.0).
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Yao, Q., Zhang, H., Jiang, J., et al. (2026). Association of inflammation-related composite indices with lung cancer risk in US adults and all-cause mortality among lung cancer patients: evidence from the 1999–2018 NHANES. Annals of Human Biology. https://doi.org/10.1080/03014460.2026.2669070