Cancer Management and Research (May 2019)
Serum hepatitis B viral (HBV) DNA is a predictive biomarker for survival in non-small cell lung cancer patients with chronic HBV infection
Abstract
Yumei Fu,1 Xiaoyi Yang,1 Huifen Liang,1 Xingping Wu21Laboratory Department of Liwan Hospital of The Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medicine University, Guangzhou, 510175, People’s Republic of China; 2State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, People’s Republic of ChinaPurpose: To study the association between pretreatment serum hepatitis B viral (HBV) DNA copy numbers and clinical outcome of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with chronic HBV infection.Patients and methods: We retrospectively evaluated the medical records of NSCLC HBV (+) patients between January 2008 and December 2010. The HBV DNA copy numbers and other prognostic factors including albumin (ALB), C-reactive protein (CRP), platelet, neutrophil–lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet–lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and Glasgow Prognostic Score (GPS) were obtained before any antitumor treatment. Kaplan–Meier curves and the log-rank test were used to calculate prognostic significance. A multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression was modeled to analyze the independent prognostic factors for NSCLC HBV (+) patients. All independent prognostic factors in the Cox multivariable analysis were used to build a nomogram. The predictive accuracy of HBV DNA, TNM stage and nomogram was evaluated with the concordance index (C-index) and time-dependent receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves, and simultaneously compared with traditional TNM staging system respectively.Results: A total of 188 patients were recruited in this study; the median age was 56 years, and the median overall survival (OS) was 34 months. Cox multivariate analysis results showed independent factors for OS including TNM stage (P=0.028), treatment (P=0.002), HBV DNA (P<0.001), and GPS (P=0.026). The nomogram model for survival was built based on four prognostic factors. The C-index for HBV DNA was 0.67, 0.69 for TNM stage, and 0.76 for the nomogram model. There was no statistical difference between HBV DNA and TNM stage (P=0.48). However, the C-index values of nomogram model were statistically higher both than HBV DNA (0.76 vs 0.67, P<0.001), and TNM stage (0.76 vs 0.69, P<0.001).Conclusion: Pretreatment serum HBV DNA copy numbers can act as a prognostic marker of survival for NSCLC patients with chronic HBV infection.Keywords: non-small cell lung cancer, hepatitis B, hepatitis B viral DNA, HBV DNA, nomogram, prognosis