Pretreatment Albumin-to-Fibrinogen Ratio is a Promising Biomarker for Predicting Postoperative Clinical Outcomes in Patients with Colorectal Cancer.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the prognostic value of pretreatment albumin-to-fibrinogen ratio (AFR) in colorectal cancer (CRC).

METHODS

This retrospective study included 657 CRC patients who underwent surgical resection in 2012-2014. Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Cox proportional hazards model were used to determine independent predictors. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to assess and compare the ability of indicators to predict survival.

RESULTS

The optimal cutoff value of AFR was 8.3. Compared with high AFR group, low AFR group had shorter progression-free survival (PFS) (65.32% vs 52.28%,  < 0.001) and overall survival (OS) (67.47% vs 56.14%,  = 0.001). In the stratified analysis of TNM stage, AFR had good prognostic discrimination for early- and advanced-stage patients. Multivariate analysis suggested that AFR was an independent prognostic factor of PFS [hazard ratio (HR) = 1.385, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.043-1.839,  = 0.024) and OS (HR = 1.342, 95% CI = 1.022-1.763,  = 0.034) for CRC patients. AFR had better prognostic prediction ability than other inflammation-related markers. The AFR-based nomograms had good predictive capabilities.

CONCLUSIONS

Pretreatment AFR is an independent prognostic factor for CRC patients undergoing surgical resection and is superior to other established inflammation-related markers.