Preoperative Aspartate Aminotransferase to Albumin Ratio Correlates with Tumor Characteristics and Predicts Outcome of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients After Curative Hepatectomy: a Multicenter Study

Overview

Journal BMC Surg

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty General Surgery

Date 2022 Aug 9

PMID 35945520

Authors

Wei Peng

Junyi Shen

Junlong Dai

Shusheng Leng

Fei Xie

Yu Zhang

Shun Ran

Xin Sun

Tianfu Wen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Aims: This study aimed to evaluate the clinical significance of the preoperative aminotransferase to albumin ratio (AAR) in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after hepatectomy.

Methods: From five hospitals, a total of 991 patients with HCC admitted between December 2014 and December 2019 were included as the primary cohort and 883 patients with HCC admitted between December 2010 and December 2014 were included as the validation cohort. The X-tile software was conducted to identify the optimal cut-off value of AAR.

Results: In the primary cohort, the optimal cut-off value of the AAR was defined as 0.7 and 1.6, respectively. Compared to patients with AAR 0.7-1.6, those with AAR > 1.6 showed significantly worse overall survival (OS) and RFS, whereas those with AAR < 0.7 showed significantly better OS and RFS (all p < 0.001). Pathologically, patients with AAR > 1.6 had more aggressive tumour characteristics, such as larger tumour size, higher incidence of microvascular invasion, and severe histologic activity, and higher AFP level than patients with AAR < 0.7. Consistently, the abovementioned clinical significance of AAR was confirmed in the validation cohort.

Conclusions: A high AAR was significantly correlated with advanced tumours and severe hepatic inflammation, and a worse prognosis of HCC.

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