PLoS ONE (Jan 2016)

Prognostic Impact of Pretreatment Plasma Fibrinogen in Patients with Locally Advanced Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancer.

  • Daniel Holzinger,
  • Ivan Danilovic,
  • Rudolf Seemann,
  • Gabriela Kornek,
  • Johannes Engelmann,
  • Robert Pillerstorff,
  • Simone Holawe,
  • Amanda Psyrri,
  • Boban M Erovic,
  • Gregory Farwell,
  • Christos Perisanidis

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0158697
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 6
p. e0158697

Abstract

Read online

We aimed to determine the prognostic significance of pretreatment plasma fibrinigen in patients with oral and oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OOSCC).A cohort of 183 patients with locally advanced OOSCC receiving preoperative chemoradiotherapy was retrospectively examined. Using ROC curve analysis, a pretreatment plasma fibrinogen cutoff value of 447mg/dL was determined. The primary endpoints were overall survival and recurrence-free survival. A secondary endpoint was to determine whether pretreatment plasma fibrinogen could predict treatment response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Cox regression models and Kaplan-Meier curves were used for survival analyses.Seventy-one patients had an elevated pretreatment plasma fibrinogen (fibrinogen >447mg/dL). Patients with high fibrinogen showed significantly higher pathologic stages after neoadjuvant treatment than those with low fibrinogen (p = 0.037). In univariate analysis, elevated fibrinogen was associated with poor overall survival (p = 0.005) and recurrence-free survival (p = 0.008) Multivariate analysis revealed that elevated fibrinogen remained an independent risk factor for death (hazard ratio 1.78, 95% CI 1.09-2.90, p = 0.021) and relapse (hazard ratio 1.78, 95% CI 1.11-2.86, p = 0.016).Elevated pretreatment plasma fibrinogen is associated with lack of response to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy and reduced OS and RFS in patients with OOSCC. Thus, plasma fibrinogen may emerge as a novel prognostic indicator and a potential therapeutic target in OOSCC.