title: The C-reactive protein/albumin ratio predicts overall survival of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Recent studies have demonstrated the prognostic value of the C-reactive protein/albumin (CRP/Alb) ratio in cancer. However, the role of the CRP/Alb ratio in advanced pancreatic cancer (PC) has not been examined. A retrospective study of 233 patients with advanced PC was conducted. We investigated the relationship between the CRP/Alb ratio, clinicopathological variables, and overall survival (OS). The optimal cutoff point of the CRP/Alb ratio was 0.54. A higher CRP/Alb ratio was significantly associated with an elevated neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) (P < 0.001) and higher modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) (P < 0.001). Using univariate analyses, we found that the age (P = 0.009), disease stage (P < 0.001), NLR (P < 0.001), mGPS (P < 0.001), and CRP/Alb ratio (P < 0.001) were significant predictors of OS. Patients with a higher CRP/Alb ratio had a worse OS than patients with a lower CRP/Alb ratio (hazard ratio (HR) 3.619; 95 % CI 2.681-4.886; P < 0.001). However, the CRP/Alb ratio was identified as the only inflammation-based parameter with an independent prognostic ability in the multivariate analyses (P < 0.001). The pretreatment CRP/Alb ratio is a superior prognostic and therapeutic predictor of OS in advanced PC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510515, China.
authors.forename: Mengwan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510515, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510515, China.
authors.forename: Lihong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, 1838 North Guangzhou Avenue, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, 510515, China. nfyyzq@126.com.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zuo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000401:mortality* / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D012709:Serum Albumin / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D012709:Serum Albumin; D002097:C-Reactive Protein
keywords: Advanced pancreatic cancer; CRP/Alb ratio; Inflammation; Prognostic score; Survival