Low Serum Albumin Correlates with Poor Survival in Gastric Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative nutritional status as evidenced by serum albumin measurement is associated with cancer prognosis but the clinical significance of this for patients with gastric cancer (GC) is unclear. Therefore, we evaluated an association between preoperative serum albumin and GC patient survival in the Fujian area which has a higher incidence for GC in China.

METHODS: GC patients (n = 309) who underwent surgical treatment at Fuzhou General Hospital between 2010 and 2013 were retrospectively assessed using a Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test, as well as univariate and multivariate Cox model analyses, to confirm a correlation between patient survival and preoperative serum albumin.

RESULTS: Data show that low serum albumin was associated with poorer survival. Preoperative serum CEA, CA199, and albumin and tumor size, T staging, and lymph node metastases (LNM) were significantly associated with overall survival according to univariate analysis. Lower serum albumin (HR: 2.018, 95% CI [1.204 - 3.381], p = 0.008) and advanced cancers with deeper invasion (T3 + T4 stages) and with lymph node metastases were significantly associated with increased death risk according to multivariate analysis. Preoperative serum total protein, patient age, tumor size, T staging, and LNM were correlated with serum albumin according to chi-squared analysis.

CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative serum albumin may be related to GC patient survival and may hold promise as a prognostic predictor for such survival.