Scientific Reports (Mar 2021)

Combination of lymphocyte count and albumin concentration as a new prognostic biomarker for rectal cancer

  • Takehito Yamamoto,
  • Kenji Kawada,
  • Koya Hida,
  • Ryo Matsusue,
  • Yoshiro Itatani,
  • Rei Mizuno,
  • Takashi Yamaguchi,
  • Iwao Ikai,
  • Yoshiharu Sakai

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-84475-4
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Although numerous studies have highlighted the prognostic values of various inflammation-related markers, clinical significance remains to be elucidated. The prognostic values of inflammation-related biomarkers for rectal cancer were investigated in this study. A total of 448 patients with stage II/III rectal cancer undergoing curative resection were enrolled from the discovery cohort (n = 240) and validation cohort (n = 208). We comprehensively compared the prognostic values of 11 inflammation-related markers-derived from neutrophil, lymphocyte, platelet, monocyte, albumin, and C-reactive protein for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS). Among 11 inflammation-related markers, only “lymphocyte × albumin (LA)” was significantly associated with both OS and RFS in the discovery cohort (P = 0.007 and 0.015, respectively). Multivariate analysis indicated that low LA was significantly associated with poor OS (hazard ratio [HR] 2.19, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.09–4.58, P = 0.025), and poor RFS (HR 1.61, 95% CI 1.01–2.80, P = 0.048). Furthermore, using the discovery cohort, we confirmed that low LA was significantly associated with poor OS (HR 2.89, 95% CI 1.42–6.00, P = 0.002), and poor RFS (HR 1.79, 95% CI 1.04–2.95, P = 0.034). LA can be a novel prognostic biomarker for stage II/III rectal cancer.