The prognostic value of FAR and a novel FAR-CA125 score in resectable gastric signet ring cell carcinoma patients

BackgroundThe fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR) is increasingly regarded as a potential biomarker for predicting prognosis in variety of malignant tumors, but not in gastric signet ring cell carcinoma (GSRC). This study seeks to examine the prognostic value of the FAR and explore a novel FAR-CA125 score (FCS) in resectable GSRC patients.MethodsA retrospective cohort was conducted including 330 GSRC patients who underwent curative resection. Kaplan-Meier (K-M) and Cox regression were used to analysis the prognostic value of FAR and FCS. And a predictive nomogram model was developed.ResultsThe optimal cut-off values for CA125 and FAR were 9.88 and 0.0697, respectively, according to the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). Th area under the ROC curve of FCS is higher than CA125 and FAR. 330 patients were grouped into three groups according to the FCS. High FCS was related to males, anemia, tumor size, TNM stage, lymph node metastasis, tumor invasion depth, SII, and pathological subtypes. K-M analysis showed that high FCS and FAR were associated with poor survival. In the multivariate analysis, FCS, TNM stage, and SII were independent prognostic factors for poor OS in resectable GSRC patients. And the predictive accuracy of clinical nomogram contained FCS was better than TNM stage.ConclusionThis study indicated that the FCS is a prognostic, and effective biomarker for patients with surgically resectable GSRC. Such developed FCS-based nomogram could be effective tools to assist the clinicians to determine the treatment strategy.