Preoperative plasma fibrinogen is associated with poor prognosis in esophageal carcinoma: a meta-analysis.

PURPOSE: The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate preoperative plasma fibrinogen (PPF) as a prognostic marker in esophageal carcinoma (EC) by meta-analysis.

METHODS: Relevant studies were sought in the databases including Pubmed, Web of Science, Cochrane library, and Wanfang databases up to Oct 10th, 2017. Hazard ratios (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used as effective value, and pooled HRs were synthesized by STATA 14.0 to assess the prognostic impact of PPF on EC patients.

RESULTS: A total of 8 studies with 2827 patients were collected in this meta-analysis. Our results revealed that high PPF was significantly associated with poor OS (HR = 1.90, 95% CI 1.56-2.33, P = 0.000; HR = 1.76, 95% CI 1.28-2.42, P = 0.000) and poor DFS (HR = 1.91, 95% CI 1.50-2.43, P = 0.000; HR = 1.51, 95% CI 1.16-1.97, P = 0.000) in EC patients from univariate and multivariate analysis results, respectively, which suggested that EC patients with high PPF will suffer from high postoperative mortality and recurrence rate.

CONCLUSION: High PPF was significantly associated with poor OS and DFS in EC patients. Fibrinogen can serve as a prognostic marker and even a future targeting molecule during the treatment of EC patients.