Prognostic significance of pretreatment albumin/globulin ratio in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma

Background: Pretreatment nutritional and immunological statuses play an indispensable role in predicting the outcome of patients with various types of malignancies. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the predictive value of albumin/globulin ratio (AGR) in overall survival (OS) and recurrence in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) following radical hepatic carcinectomy. Patients and methods: This retrospective study included a total of 172 patients with HCC with complete medical and follow-up information between 2002 and 2012. AGR was calculated according to the following formula: AGR = albumin/globulin. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed to determine the optimal cutoff value. The associations of AGR with clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis were assessed. Further multivariate analysis using Cox regression model and subgroup analysis was performed to evaluate the predictive value. Results: Receiver operating characteristic curve determined 37.65, 31.99, and 1.48 as the optimal cutoff values of albumin, globulin, and AGR in terms of 5-year OS or death, respectively. On the basis of the cutoff value of AGR, all the patients were divided, respectively, into low-AGR (n=105) and high-AGR (n=67) groups. AGR was found to be significantly correlated with age, cancer embolus, international normalized ratio, and postoperative outcome (P<0.05). Hepatitis B virus infection (hazard ratio [HR]: 2.125; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.285-3.153), tumor node metastasis stage (HR: 1.656; 95% CI: 1.234-2.223), serum albumin (HR: 0.546; 95% CI: 0.347-0.857), and AGR (HR: 0.402; 95% CI: 0.233-0.691) were independent predictors of OS via univariate and multivariate survival analyses. However, alpha-fetoprotein (HR: 1.708; 95% CI: 1.027-2.838), tumor node metastasis stage (HR: 1.464; 95% CI: 1.078-1.989), and AGR (HR: 0.493; 95% CI: 0.293-0.828) functioned as independent risk variables for predicting recurrence. Moreover, AGR showed superior prognostic value for OS and recurrence in the subgroups with normal level of albumin or survival time beyond 6 months. Conclusion: Pretreatment AGR might serve as an effective biomarker to evaluate the prognosis of patients with a diagnosis of HCC. Based on the results, AGR, characterized with easy accessibility, objectivity, and noninvasiveness, should be included in the routine assessment of HCC.