Objective: To systematically evaluate the prognostic value of nutrition/inflammation-based markers for recurrence-free survival (RFS) in pN2-stage IIIA lung adenocarcinoma patients.
Materials and methods: Data from 156 patients who had pathologically confirmed pN2-stage IIIA primary lung adenocarcinoma and received complete surgical resection from 2010 to 2014 were retrospectively analyzed. The data for Glasgow prognostic score (GPS), modified GPS (mGPS), high-sensitivity mGPS, C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR), neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio, platelet/lymphocyte ratio, and prognostic nutritional index were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses were used to identify the prognostic factors associated with RFS.
Results: The optimal cutoff value for the CAR was set at 0.6. A significant correlation was found between the CAR and RFS (P=0.001) by univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis between RFS and the factors selected from univariate analysis showed that ECOG performance status, pneumonectomy, multi-level N2, and high CAR were independent predictors of RFS.
Conclusion: The CAR was the best prognostic marker to predict tumor recurrence in pN2-stage IIIA lung adenocarcinoma patients among the 7 nutrition/inflammation-based markers. The preoperative CAR may identify patients with a high risk of postoperative tumor recurrence.
Keywords: C-reactive protein-albumin ratio; Inflammation; Lung adenocarcinoma; NSCLC stage IIIA; Nutrition; Prognostic marker.
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