Prognostic significance of serum albumin in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
BACKGROUND
Low levels of serum albumin have been reported to be associated with a poor prognosis in lymphoproliferative disorders.


RESULTS
Clinical and laboratory data were retrospectively evaluated in a series of 342 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In univariate analysis, survival was significantly influenced (p less than 0.01) by traditional prognostic factors: number of lymphoid areas involved, volume of adenopathies, presence and degree of hepatomegaly and splenomegaly, anemia, thrombocytopenia, peripheral blood lymphocytosis (greater than 60 x 10(9)/l), percentage of bone marrow lymphocytes (greater than 50%). Among variables not included in the traditional staging systems, age over 70, hypoproteinemia (less than 6 gr/dl) and hypoalbuminemia (less than 3.5 gr/dl) adversely affected prognosis. All the most widely adopted staging systems recognize no more than three groups of patients with statistically different outcomes. In multivariate analysis, the prognostic value of serum albumin was independent of both age and the group of variables included in each staging system considered.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that evaluation of the serum albumin level could be useful, in future multicenter studies, for further implementation of the staging of CLL.
Divisione di Ematologia, Ospedale Maggiore di San Giovanni Battista e della Città di Torino, Italy.
A
A
Levis
F
F
Ficara
F
F
Marmont
A
A
De Crescenzo
L
L
Resegotti
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015451:Leukemia, Lymphocytic, Chronic, B-Cell / Q000097:blood* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D008221:Lymphoid Tissue / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000032:analysis*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods; D011379:Prognosis; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate
D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012709:Serum Albumin