Elevated Pretreatment Fibrinogen-to-Lymphocyte Percentage Ratio Predict Tumor Staging and Poor Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Chemotherapy or Surgery Combined with Chemotherapy

Prognostic significance of alterations in fibrinogen level and fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte ratio after radiotherapy on survival outcomes in glioblastoma

Background

Fibrinogen (FIB) plays an important role in tumor initiation, progression, and metastasis, but its clinical significance in glioblastoma has not been studied. We intend to explore the prognostic value by retrospectively analyzing the changes in FIB and fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte ratio (FLR) in glioblastoma patients before and after radiotherapy, and study the impact of radiotherapy on them.

Methods

This study retrospectively included 104 patients who were newly diagnosed with glioblastoma between February 2017 and February 2022 and analysed their clinical data from before to after radiotherapy. The cut-off values for FLR and FIB were calculated using a receiver operating characteristic curve. For inter-group comparisons, the Mann-Whitney U or t-test was applied. The prognostic importance of FIB and FLR was evaluated using the Kaplan-Meier curve and the Cox regression model. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated to evaluate the association of FIB and FLR with radiotherapy-related dose-volume parameters.

Results

The mean progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) of the high FIB and high FLR groups were significantly lower than those of the low FIB and low FLR groups (P<0.05). Larger planning target volume (PTV), mean brain dose, and mean brainstem dose were independent prognostic factors for poor PFS and OS in patients with glioblastoma.

Conclusions

FLR was a unique and very accurate predictor for the prognosis of glioblastoma, and FIB rise after radiation was a predictive sign of poor survival. Both PTV volume and dose volume for involved organs could significantly affect the FIB and FLR values in patients with glioblastoma.

Fibrinogen-to-Lymphocyte Ratio Was an Independent Predictor of Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Clinically Node-Negative Advanced-Stage Gastric Cancer

Purpose

Various hematological indicators have been reported to predict lymph node metastasis (LNM) in gastric cancer (GC) patients, but the relationship between FLR and LNM has not been studied. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the role of preoperative fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte ratio (FLR) in predicting LNM in patients with clinically node-negative (cN0) advanced gastric cancer (AGC).

Patients and Methods

We retrospectively reviewed 571 eligible patients with primary AGC adenocarcinoma who underwent radical gastrectomy (discovery cohort). Patients were divided into high and low FLR groups according to the optimal cutoff value determined by Youden index. FLR is an independent predictor of LNM determined by logistic regression and validated in the validation cohort of 207 patients. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of FLR for LNM. The nonlinear relationship between FLR and LNM risk was assessed using restricted cubic spline. Sensitivity analyses were performed according to FLR quartiles to further assess the robustness of the results. The nomogram was built based on FLR and clinicopathological characteristics, and was evaluated by calibration curves, ROC curve analysis and decision curve analysis.

Results

In the discovery cohort, the area under the curve (AUC) value for FLR to predict LNM was 0.592. There is a linear relationship between the FLR value and the risk of LNM, and the risk of LNM increased with FLR value. High FLR level is an independent risk factor for LNM, and the results of sensitivity analysis robust this finding. The nomogram for individual risk assessment performed well. Furthermore, we verified the FLR was an independent predictor of LNM in the validation cohort.

Conclusion

FLR was an independent predictor of LNM in patients with cN0 AGC.

Development and validation of a nomogram based on neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte ratio for predicting recurrence of colorectal adenoma

Background

There are many risk factors for the recurrence of colorectal adenoma (CRA). The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive performance of fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte ratio (FLR) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on the recurrence of CRA and to construct a predictive model.

Methods

This study analyzed the clinicopathological features of 421 CRA patients who underwent colonoscopy and adenectomy, and evaluated the recurrence of polyps under colonoscopy. Among them, 301 were training cohort and 120 were validation cohort. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify independent risk factors associated with CRA recurrence. Established a nomogram model to predict the risk of recurrence in CRA patients using independent risk factors. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to verify the nomogram model discrimination. Calibration curves were used to verify the model calibration degree. The decision curve analysis (DCA) curves were used to verify the clinical efficacy of the nomogram model.

Results

Totally, six independent predictors, including smoking, diabetes, adenoma number, adenoma size, NLR, and FLR, were enrolled in the nomogram. In the training cohort and validation cohort, the area under the curve (AUC) of the nomogram for predicting the risk of CRA recurrence was 0.846 and 0.841, respectively. The calibration curves displayed a good agreement. DCA curves showed that this model had a high net clinical benefit.

Conclusions

Smoking, diabetes, adenoma number, adenoma size, NLR, and FLR were influencing factors for CRA recurrence.

Preoperative low absolute lymphocyte count to fibrinogen ratio correlated with poor survival in nonmetastatic colorectal cancer

Background

Preoperative absolute lymphocyte count (LC) and fibrinogen (FIB) are useful prognostic indicators in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, the prognostic value of the LC to FIB ratio (LFR) has never been addressed.

Methods

A total of 189 nonmetastatic CRC patients after resection were enrolled retrospectively. The significance of the LFR in predicting disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) was estimated by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, and the prognostic efficacy was compared with individual LC and FIB. Patients were assigned to LFR low or high subgroups. Differences in clinicopathological features among these subgroups were calculated, and the survival differences of these subgroups were determined by the Kaplan-Meier analysis. A Cox proportional hazards model was applied to test the risk factors for survival.

Results

Taking 0.54 as the optimal cutoff point, the LFR had sensitivities of 79.70% and 86.40% and specificities of 52.30% and 51.00% in predicting the DFS and OS, respectively. A total of 109/189 (57.67%) patients were assigned to the LFR low group, and these patients were more likely to be characterized by criteria such as T₃ + T₄ (P < 0.01), stage 3 (P < 0.01), tumor deposits (P = 0.01), high CEA (P < 0.01), or CA19-9 levels (P = 0.04). And they also displayed worse DFS (log rank = 18.57, P < 0.01) and OS (log rank = 20.40, P < 0.01) than the high LFR group. Finally, the LFR was independently associated with inferior DFS (HR = 0.32, 95% CI: 0.16–0.61, P < 0.01) and OS (HR = 0.23, 95% CI: 0.09–0.55, P < 0.01).

Conclusions

The LFR is a useful prognostic indicator in nonmetastatic CRC, and patients with a relatively low LFR had poor survival.

Pretreatment Fibrinogen-Albumin Ratio (FAR) Associated with Treatment Response and Survival in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients Treated with First-Line Anti-PD-1 Therapy Plus Platinum-Based Combination Chemotherapy

Purpose

PD-1 inhibitors have been routinely used to treat advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and have significantly improved clinical outcomes. In this study, we aimed to explore the influence of pretreatment fibrinogen-albumin ratio (FAR) on treatment response and survival in advanced NSCLC patients treated with first-line anti-PD-1 therapy plus platinum-based combination chemotherapy.

Patients and Methods

A total of 91 patients with advanced NSCLC were included in the study. All patients received at least two cycles of systemic first-line anti-PD-1 therapy plus platinum-based combination chemotherapy. Receiver operating characteristics analysis was performed to determine the optimal cutoff values of FAR. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to identify independent prognostic factors, and the Kaplan–Meier method was used to estimate survival curves.

Results

Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that N stage (N2-3) and high FAR (≥0.175, optimal cutoff value) were independent predictors for objective response rate (P = 0.0002, P = 0.0005, respectively). Multivariate Cox regression analysis of progression-free survival and overall survival showed that high FAR (≥0.145) was independent prognostic factors (P = 0.0061, P = 0.0024, respectively). Progression-free survival and overall survival were significantly shorter in the high FAR (≥0.145) group than those in the low FAR (<0.145) group (P = 0.0024, P = 0.0024, respectively).

Conclusion

Pretreatment FAR was an independent predictor for treatment response and independent prognostic factors in advanced NSCLC patients treated with first-line anti-PD-1 therapy plus platinum-based combination chemotherapy.

The Potential Prognostic Value of a Novel Hematologic Marker Fibrinogen-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Head and Neck Adenoid-Cystic Carcinoma

Many patients with adenoid-cystic carcinoma (ACC) experience an indolent course of disease over many years but face late recurrence, and long-term survivors are rare. Due to its infrequent occurrence, it is hard to predict outcome in these patients. The fibrinogen-to-lymphocyte ratio (FLR) was recently proposed as an outcome prognosticator in different cancer entities. We aimed to investigate its prognostic relevance in patients with head and neck ACC. This retrospective analysis was performed including all patients treated for ACC between 1998 and 2020. The FLR ratio was calculated based on pretreatment values (0-7 days). The study cohort was dichotomized based on optimized threshold value and compared for differences in outcome (overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS)). In the cohort of 39 included patients, the OS was significantly longer in the low (n = 28) compared to the high pretreatment FLR group (n = 11) (median OS 150.5 months, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 85.3-215.7 months vs. 29.4 months, 95% CI not reached; p = 0.0093). Similarly, the DFS was significantly longer in the low FLR group (median DFS 74.5 months, 95% CI 30.6-118.4 months vs. 11.0 months, 95% CI 5.1-16.9 months; p = 0.019). The FLR is an easily obtainable and simple marker and may be a valuable outcome prognosticator in patients with ACC. Further studies are needed for validation of our results.