Background: Low levels of serum albumin have been reported to be associated with a poor prognosis in lymphoproliferative disorders.
Methods and results: Clinical and laboratory data were retrospectively evaluated in a series of 342 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). In univariate analysis, survival was significantly influenced (p less than 0.01) by traditional prognostic factors: number of lymphoid areas involved, volume of adenopathies, presence and degree of hepatomegaly and splenomegaly, anemia, thrombocytopenia, peripheral blood lymphocytosis (greater than 60 x 10(9)/l), percentage of bone marrow lymphocytes (greater than 50%). Among variables not included in the traditional staging systems, age over 70, hypoproteinemia (less than 6 gr/dl) and hypoalbuminemia (less than 3.5 gr/dl) adversely affected prognosis. All the most widely adopted staging systems recognize no more than three groups of patients with statistically different outcomes. In multivariate analysis, the prognostic value of serum albumin was independent of both age and the group of variables included in each staging system considered.
Conclusions: We suggest that evaluation of the serum albumin level could be useful, in future multicenter studies, for further implementation of the staging of CLL.