A number of inflammation indicators based on C-reactive protein (CRP) and albumin have been widely used to predict the prognosis in several types of tumors, but their functions in gallbladder cancer (GBC) have rarely been explored. The aim of our study is to evaluate and compare the prognostic values of the C-reactive protein to albumin ratio (CAR), Glasgow prognostic score (GPS), modified Glasgow prognostic score (mGPS) and high-sensitivity modified Glasgow prognostic score (HS-mGPS) in patients with GBC. 144 GBC patients who received curative surgery in our hospital from January 2010 to May 2017 were enrolled in this research. The Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that the median OS of the patients in the high CAR group was significantly shorter than the patients in the low group (p < 0.001), and higher scores of GPS, mGPS and HS-mGPS were also associated with decreased OS, respectively. However, according to the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, the CAR was superior to the other prognostic scores in determining the prognosis for the GBC patients. In the multivariate analysis, CAR was verified as an independent risk factor for poor prognosis, together with tumor differentiation, T stage and postoperative complications. All in all, compared to the other three CRP-albumin-related prognostic predictors, CRA is a better indicator in predicting poor long-term outcomes in GBC patients after radical surgery.
Keywords: C-reactive protein to albumin ratio; gallbladder cancer; prognostic score; surgery.