Glucose to Lymphocyte Ratio as a Prognostic Marker in Patients With Resected pT2 Gallbladder Cancer

Abstract

Background: We designed a clinical application of glucose to lymphocyte ratio (GLR) as it might be a sensitive parameter to determine the glucose metabolism and behavior of the cancer (i.e., its aggressiveness), and the immunologic status of a patient with cancer. Thus, we investigated the association of GLR with the overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) of patients with T2 gallbladder (GB) cancer after curative-intent surgery.

Methods: The medical records of patients with T2 GB cancer who underwent surgery were retrospectively reviewed. The clinicopathologic characteristics, preoperative complete blood counts, fasting blood glucose, albumin, cholesterol, and follow-up information were collected.

Results: A total of 197 patients were included in the study. In multivariate analysis, high GLR (>69.3) was associated with poor OS (HR = 15.249, 95% CI: 4.090-56.849, P = 0.0001) along with R1 status (HR = 1.755, 95% CI: 0.033-0.910, P = 0.033), >3 metastatic lymph nodes (HR = 2.809, 95% CI: 1.403-5.625; P = 0.004), and lymphovascular invasion (HR = 8.041, 95% CI: 2.881-22.442; P = 0.0001). Moreover, high GLR (HR = 3.666, 95% CI: 1.145-11.737, P = 0.029), adjuvant chemotherapy (HR = 6.306, 95% CI: 1.921-20.699; P = 0.002), lymphovascular invasion (HR = 5.464, 95% CI: 1.783-16.746; P = 0.003), and high-grade tumor (HR = 2.143, 95% CI: 1.042-4.407; P = 0.038) were independently associated with DFS.

Conclusions: Preoperative GLR is an independent predictor of OS and DFS in T2 GB cancer. Further studies are required to validate these findings.

Keywords: Gallbladder cancer; Glucose to lymphocytes ratio; Prognostic factor.