Is There a Novel Prognostic Parameter for Well-Differentiated Neuroendocrine Tumours? The Prognostic Value of Albumin and Hemoglobin in Patients Well-Differentiated Neuroendocrine Tumours

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are a heterogeneous group of tumours. There are no well-established prognostic factors for accurately predicting survival of patients with well-differentiated NETs. Prognostic value of inflammatory markers was evaluated in some solid tumours previously. However, it was not well documented in orphan tumours like well-differentiated NETs. We aimed to find out a novel and easy-accessible prognostic parameter by using hemogram & biochemical parameters in patients with well-differentiated NETs.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: 132 patients with well-differentiated NETs were analyzed, retrospectively. Patients were subgrouped into two groups with respect to the cut-off value that was determined by ROC analysis. Survival analysis was performed by using the Kaplan-Meier method with the Long-rank test. p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

RESULTS: The cut-off value was defined as 47.94 for AlbXHb. High-risk (AlbXHb < 47.94) group had significantly increased risk of death ( HR:5.16, 95%CI 1.45-18.38 p=0.011). AlbXHb was a significant prognostic factor for OS in univariate analyses (HR=0.925 95% CI 0.878-0.974, p=0.003).

CONCLUSION: We demonstrated that AlbXHb might be a novel prognostic factor for well-differentiated NETs, but it needs further evaluation by randomized clinical trials. We believe that this novel parameter has feasible accuracy for predicting disease outcomes. 

Key words: albumin, hemoglobin, well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumour