Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2025. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Feb 27, 2025; 17(2): 100728
Published online Feb 27, 2025. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v17.i2.100728
Prognostic value of preoperative fibrinogen to albumin ratio in predicting postoperative outcomes in patients with gallbladder cancer
Peng-Fu Wang, Ya-Jian Duan
Peng-Fu Wang, Department of General Surgery, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Taiyuan 030032, Shanxi Province, China
Ya-Jian Duan, Department of Ophthalmology, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030032, Shanxi Province, China
Author contributions: Wang PF contributed to the conception of the study, improving the article for language and style and protocol preparation, and helped perform the analysis with constructive discussions; Wang PF and Duan YJ contributed significantly to literature search, data extraction, quality assessment, data analyses and manuscript preparation; Duan YJ revised the manuscript and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, approval No. 2023-K-159.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent for publication was obtained from all patients and/or their families included in this retrospective analysis.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data sets generated and analyzed during this study are not public, but under reasonable requirements, the correspondence author can provide.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement—checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement—checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Ya-Jian Duan, Associate Chief Physician, MD, Professor, Department of Ophthalmology, Shanxi Bethune Hospital, Shanxi Academy of Medical Sciences, Tongji Shanxi Hospital, Third Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, No. 99 Longcheng Street, Taiyuan 030032, Shanxi Province, China. duanyajian8980@163.com
Received: August 24, 2024
Revised: October 8, 2024
Accepted: November 11, 2024
Published online: February 27, 2025
Processing time: 150 Days and 19.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Gallbladder cancer (GBC) is known for its poor prognosis and challenging management. The preoperative fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR) has been proposed as a potential prognostic marker for predicting postoperative outcomes in GBC patients, but its efficacy and prognostic value remain underexplored.

AIM

To evaluate the prognostic value of preoperative FAR in GBC outcomes.

METHODS

This retrospective cohort study included 66 patients who underwent curative surgery for GBC at our institution from January 2018 to January 2022. Preoperative FAR values were obtained within one week prior to surgery. Patients were followed through outpatient visits or telephone interviews, with overall survival (OS) as the primary endpoint. Statistical analyses, including receiver operating characteristic curve analysis and Kaplan-Meier survival estimates, were performed using SPSS software (version 27.0).

RESULTS

The cohort consisted of 36 male and 30 female patients, with a mean age of 61.81 ± 8.58 years. The optimal FAR cut-off value was determined to be 0.088, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.7899, sensitivity of 68.96%, and specificity of 80.01%. Patients with FAR ≤ 0.088 showed significantly better survival rates (1-year: 60.5%, 2-year: 52.6%, 3-year: 25.9%) and a median OS of 25.6 months (95% confidence interval: 18.8-30.5 months), compared to those with FAR > 0.088 who had a median OS of 10.8 months (95% confidence interval: 6.3-12.9 months).

CONCLUSION

Lower preoperative FAR is associated with longer OS in GBC patients, confirming its potential as a valuable prognostic indicator for improving outcome predictions and guiding patient management strategies in gallbladder cancer.

Keywords: Gallbladder cancer; Fibrinogen to albumin ratio; Overall survival; Prognostic biomarker; Surgical outcomes

Core Tip: Our study explores the efficacy of the preoperative fibrinogen to albumin ratio (FAR) as a prognostic marker in gallbladder cancer (GBC), aiming to provide valuable insights into its potential utility in clinical settings. In this retrospective cohort study, we analyzed the outcomes of 66 patients who underwent curative surgery for GBC, focusing on how preoperative FAR values correlate with overall survival rates. Our findings demonstrate that lower FAR values before surgery are associated with significantly better survival outcomes, suggesting that FAR could serve as a crucial biomarker for patient prognosis and treatment planning.