A novel blood tool of cancer prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: the Fibrinogen/Albumin Ratio.

Coagulation and nutrition play important roles in cancer progression. We aim to investigate the impact of the fibrinogen/albumin ratio(FAR) in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. We retrospectively analyzed 1135 patients with radical esophagectomy for ESCC from January 2008 to December 2010 in our center. X-tile software was used to determine the optimal cutoff levels for these biomarkers. The optimal cutoff value was 0.08 for the FAR by the X-tile software. The FAR was statistically significantly associated with age(0.003), sex(0.030), tumor length (=0.043), pT status(<0.001) and pN status(<0.001). Pearson's correlation indicated that the FAR were positively associated with the serum C-reactive protein (CRP) ( =0.583, <0.001), and the NLR ( =0.316, <0.001). Multivariate analysis indicated that age, tumor grade, pT status, pN status and preoperative FAR were independent prognostic factors in patients with ESCC. Preoperative FAR was an independent prognostic factor in ESCC patients. Lower FAR may improve OS of ESCC patients.