Preoperative albumin to globulin ratio predicts survival in clear cell renal cell carcinoma patients

Abstract

In this retrospective analysis, we evaluated associations between albumin to globulin ratio (AGR), clinicopathological characteristics, and survival in 592 patients with localized or locally advanced clear cell renal cell carcinoma (CCRCC) prior to nephrectomy. We found that low AGR was associated with more aggressive tumor behavior; patients with low AGR had poorer overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in Kaplan-Meier survival analyses both before and after propensity score matching, which was used to compensate for differences in baseline clinicopathological characteristics. AGR was an independent prognostic factor for both OS (HR: 6.799; 95% CI: 3.215−14.377; P < 0.001) and CSS (HR: 8.806; 95% CI: 3.891−19.928; P < 0.001), and its prognostic value was higher than that of other established inflammation-based prognostic scores. When AGR was incorporated into a prognostic model that included T stage, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and monocyte to lymphocyte ratio (MLR), the resulting nomogram predicted 3- and 5-year OS in the patients more accurately than when AGR was not included. In conclusion, AGR may be particularly useful for improving clinical outcome predictions for patients with localized or locally advanced CCRCC.