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


CONCLUSIONS
The pretreatment AGR may represent a simple, potentially useful predictive biomarker for evaluating the long-term prognosis of patients with undifferentiated NPC.
Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Xiao-Jing
XJ
Du
Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Ling-Long
LL
Tang
Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Yan-Ping
YP
Mao
Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Ying
Y
Sun
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Mu-Sheng
MS
Zeng
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Tie-Bang
TB
Kang
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in Southern China, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Wei-Hua
WH
Jia
Department of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Ai-Hua
AH
Lin
Department of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
Jun
J
Ma
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000418:Albumins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002277:Carcinoma; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005916:Globulins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D000077274:Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000473:pathology; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
D000418:Albumins; D005916:Globulins