ObjectiveTo investigated the clinical significance of preoperative and postoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) change in evaluating long-term prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.MethodsThe clinicopathologic data of the patients who underwent the gastric cancer resection from January 2010 to December 2014 in the Panjin Liao-Oil Gem Flower Hospital were analyzed retrospectively. The patients were designed into an increased NLR group (preoperative NLR was lower than postoperative NLR) and decreased NLR group (preoperative NLR was higher than postoperative NLR) according to the change of NLR before and after operation. The differences of clinicopathologic characteristics between the two groups were compared and the influencing factors of 5-year survival rate of patients with gastric cancer were analyzed.ResultsIn this study, 194 patients were included, 145 of whom in the decreased NLR group and 49 in the increased NLR group. The proportions of the later TNM stage (stage Ⅲ), total gastrectomy, preoperative CEA level >5 μg/L, and with postoperative complications in the increased NLR group were significantly higher than those in the decreased NLR group (P<0.05). The results of multivariate analysis showed that the later TNM stage (stage Ⅲ), with postoperative complications, increased NLR, and postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy deficiency were the independent risk factors for the 5-year survival rate of patients with gastric cancer (P<0.05), and the survival of patients in the increased NLR group was worse than in the decreased NLR group by the Kaplan-Meier analysis (P=0.011).ConclusionThe change of preoperative and postoperative NLR has an important clinical value in evaluating the long-term prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.