The pretreatment albumin to globulin ratio has predictive value for long-term mortality in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

PLoS One. 2014 Apr 9;9(4):e94473. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094473. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Background: Low serum albumin is predictive of poor survival in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). We evaluated the ability of the pretreatment albumin/globulin ratio (AGR) to predict long-term mortality in patients with NPC.

Methods: This retrospective study examined an unselected cohort of 694 patients with NPC who had documented pretreatment total serum protein and serum albumin levels (ALB). AGR was calculated as [AGR = ALB/(total serum protein--ALB)]. Survival analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of AGR.

Results: Multivariate analysis demonstrated that a low pretreatment serum AGR (<1.4) was an independent predictor of poor OS (P = 0.029) and DMFS (P = 0.033). A low AGR was significantly associated with advanced stage disease (P<0.001), high white blood cell count (P = 0.033), high neutrophil count (P = 0.047), high total serum protein (P<0.001) and low ALB (P<0.001).

Conclusion: The pretreatment AGR may represent a simple, potentially useful predictive biomarker for evaluating the long-term prognosis of patients with undifferentiated NPC.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Albumins / metabolism*
  • Carcinoma
  • Disease-Free Survival
  • Female
  • Globulins / metabolism*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Multivariate Analysis
  • Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
  • Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / blood
  • Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / mortality*
  • Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / pathology
  • Neoplasm Metastasis
  • Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / pathology
  • Predictive Value of Tests
  • Prognosis
  • Time Factors
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Albumins
  • Globulins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Innovation Team Development Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (IRT1297), the Cultivating Foundation of Education-bureau of Guangdong Province (LYM11001) and the Key Laboratory Construction Project of Guangzhou City, China (No. 121800085). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.