title: Uric acid levels in blood are associated with clinical outcome in soft-tissue sarcoma patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent evidence indicates toward a role of uric acid (UA) as a potential antioxidant. Elevated UA levels were shown to be associated with better survival in various malignancies. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prognostic relevance of pre-operative UA levels on cancer-specific survival (CSS) in soft-tissue sarcoma (STS) patients who underwent curative surgical resection.
  
  
  METHODS
  Three hundred and fifty-seven patients with STS were included in the study. Pre-operative serum UA level was measured using an enzymatic colorimetric assay. The effect of UA levels on CSS was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves. To further evaluate the prognostic impact of UA levels, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional models were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Among the 357 STS patients, cancer-related deaths occurred in 20 (24.7%) of 81 patients with a serum UA level <279.6 µmol/L and in 36 (13%) of 276 patients with a UA level ≥279.6 µmol/L. In univariate analysis, elevated UA levels were significantly associated with increased CSS in STS patients [hazard ratio (HR) 0.44, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.26-0.77, p=0.004]. Furthermore, elevated UA levels remain a significant factor for better CCS in multivariate analysis (HR 0.42, 95% CI 0.23-0.75, p=0.003).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study is the first one to demonstrate that higher UA levels are associated with positive clinical outcome in STS patients. UA levels are a simple and cost-effective test for the assessment of the prognosis of STS patients.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Szkandera
authors.forename: Armin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gerger
authors.forename: Bernadette
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liegl-Atzwanger
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stotz
authors.forename: Hellmut
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Samonigg
authors.forename: Ferdinand
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ploner
authors.forename: Tatjana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stojakovic
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gary
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leithner
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pichler
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012372:ROC Curve; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014527:Uric Acid