Higher preoperative serum lactate dehydrogenase-to-albumin ratio was associated with worse overall survival for stage II gastric cancer

Abstract

Abstract Purpose The current study was to evaluate the effect of the preoperative serum lactate dehydrogenase-to-albumin ratio (LAR) on the short-term outcomes and overall survival (OS) of patients with gastric cancer (GC) who received surgery. Methods GC patients who underwent gastrectomy at a single clinical medical center were enrolled and were divided into the low and the high LAR groups by LAR cutoff (12.8). The baseline information, short-term outcomes, and OS were compared between the two groups. Cox regression analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors for OS. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate the OS between the two groups in different tumor stages. Results A total of 570 patients were included for analysis. As for baseline information, we found that the high LAR group had older patients (P<0.01), a lower body mass index (BMI) (P=0.042), a higher level of lactate dehydrogenase (P<0.01), and a higher level of albumin (P<0.01). In terms of short-term outcomes, the high LAR group had more total retrieved lymph nodes (P=0.036). After univariate and multivariate analyses, BMI (P=0.015, HR=0.932, 95%CI=0.881-0.986) was an independent protective factor of OS. Meanwhile, neoadjuvant therapy (P<0.01, HR=2.627, 95%CI=1.620-4.259) and tumor stage (P<0.01, HR=2.129, 95%CI=1.643-2.760) were the independent risk factors of OS. However, LAR was not an independent factor for OS (P=0.210, HR=1.334, 95%CI=0.850-1.746). According to the Kaplan-Meier curves, we found that tumor stage II (P<0.01) patients had a worse OS. Conclusion LAR was not an independent factor of OS. However, LAR might affect the prognosis of stage II GC.