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. 2022 Oct 13:12:924210.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.924210. eCollection 2022.

Prognostic role of pre-treatment serum ALB in Patients with oropharyngeal cancer: A retrospective cohort study

Jiajia Zhu  1 , Liang Li  1   2 , Yuansheng Duan  1 , Yansheng Wu  1 , Xudong Wang  1
Affiliations

Prognostic role of pre-treatment serum ALB in Patients with oropharyngeal cancer: A retrospective cohort study

Jiajia Zhu et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Background: The morbidity of oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) is continuing to rise in numerous developed countries. An accurate prognostic assessment is needed to evaluate the malignant degree or risk classification to optimize treatment. Albumin (ALB) as an independent prognostic indicator of cancer survival has been established in previous studies. This study investigated the prognostic value of pre-treatment serum ALB in OPC patients.

Methods: The clinicopathological data of 246 patients diagnosed with OPC from 2010 to 2019 were analyzed retrospectively. Analyze the relationship between ALB and clinicopathological characteristics of patients. The optimal cut-off values for ALB were determined via Cutoff Finder (Method for cutoff determination: Survival: significance (log-rank test)). To determine the independent prognostic factors, the Cox proportional hazards model was used to perform univariate and multivariate analyses of the serum ALB levels related to overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS).

Results: The optimal cut-off point for ALB was 39.15 g/L determined via Cutoff Finder. Serum ALB levels were significantly associated with age (P=0.047), Presence of comorbidity (P=0.009), Charlson score index (P=0.007), Hemoglobin (P<0.001), Neutrophil to Lymphocyte Ratio (P=0.002), Albumin-To-Alkaline Phosphatase Ratio (P<0.001), Alkaline phosphatase (P=0.005), T stage (P=0.016), and HPV status (P=0.002). In the univariate and multivariate analyses, ALB was found to be an independent prognostic indicator for DFS (HR =0.39, 95% CI:0.23-0.66, P=0.000) and OS (HR =0.46, 95% CI: 0.25-0.83, P=0.01) in OPC patients.

Conclusions: Pre-treatment serum ALB could serve as a valuable prognostic biomarker for the prognostic stratification of OPC patients.

Keywords: albumin (ALB); disease-free survival; oropharyngeal cancer (OPC); overall survival; prognosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A) Distribution based cutoff optimization (independent of outcome and survival data) in the OPC data. (B) Cutoff optimization by correlation with a binary variable (ALB<39.15 g/L; ALB≥39.15 g/L) or survival in the OPC data. (C) Receiver operating characteristic curve for albumin levels predicting overall survival. (D) Detailed analysis of the optimal dichotomization of the OPC cancer data.
Figure 2
Figure 2
(A) Kaplan-Meier curve of cumulative overall survival in 246 patients with oropharyngeal cancer according to albumin levels classification. (B) Kaplan-Meier curve of cumulative disease-free survival in 246 patients with oropharyngeal cancer according to albumin levels classification.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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