Fig. 4

Correlation between pre-treatment NLR and immune cell infiltration in glioblastomas. a Representative immunohistochemical images of neutrophil infiltration and CD3⁺ T-cell infiltration in glioblastoma patients with pre-treatment NLR ≥4 and NLR <4. b, c Pre-treatment NLR ≥4 (versus NLR <4) significantly correlated with high neutrophil infiltration (b) and low CD3⁺ T-cell infiltration (c). High neutrophil infiltration (number of neutrophils ≥10/200 × HPF) and low CD3⁺ T-cell infiltration (number of CD3⁺ T-cells <20/400 × HPF) were more frequent in patients with pre-treatment NLR ≥4 than in those with pre-treatment NLR < 4 (69.4 vs. 36.9 %, P < 0.001 and 59.2 vs. 38.8 %, P = 0.019, respectively). d-f Kaplan-Meier plots of overall survival, stratified by different levels of neutrophil infiltration (D and E) or CD3⁺ T-cell infiltration (f). Scale bars, 50 μm