Scientific Reports (Jan 2021)

High level of pre-treatment C-reactive protein to albumin ratio predicts inferior prognosis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

  • Jongheon Jung,
  • Hyewon Lee,
  • Ja Yoon Heo,
  • Myung Hee Chang,
  • Eunyoung Lee,
  • Weon Seo Park,
  • Ju-Hyun Park,
  • Hyeon-Seok Eom

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-82087-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract The C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio (CAR) has not been assessed in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL, the most common non-Hodgkin lymphoma). This retrospective study evaluated the prognostic value of CAR in 186 DLBCL patients. A CAR value of 0.158 was selected as the most discriminative cut-off for identifying patients with high CAR values (73/141 patients, 51.8%). During a median follow-up of 32.5 months, the high CAR group had significantly poorer complete response to induction therapy (64.4% vs. 92.6%; p 0.158 also showed worse 3-year OS (47.9% vs. 87.2%, p = 0.0035) and 3-year PFS (36.1% vs. 82.1%, p = 0.0011). A high CAR remained significantly associated with poor outcomes for > 60-year-old patients (OS: p = 0.0038, PFS: p = 0.0015) and younger patients (OS: p = 0.0041, PFS: p = 0.0044). Among older patients, a high CAR value also predicted non-relapse mortality (p = 0.035). Therefore, the CAR might complement the International Prognostic Index in DLBCL cases.