Objective: To evaluate the clinical prognostic significance of preoperative serum hypersensitive-c-reactive-protein (Hs-CRP) to albumin ratio (CAR) in patients with luminal B subtype breast cancer.
Methods: A total of 199 patients with luminal B subtype breast cancer enrolled in this study were analyzed retrospectively. The optimal cutoff value of CAR was performed by the receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC). The associations between luminal B subtype breast cancer and clinicopathological variables by CAR were performed by chi-square test. Kaplan–Meier and log rank method were used for survival analysis. The independent prognostic factors were determined by univariate and multivariate Cox’s proportional hazards regression model.
Results: The patients were divided into low CAR group (CAR< 0.044) and high CAR group (CAR≥ 0.044) by ROC. CAR was the independent factor by univariate and multivariate analysis, and the mean DFS and OS in the low CAR group survived longer than those in the high CAR group (p< 0.05). According to the endocrine therapy with aromatase inhibitors, the mean survival time of DFS and OS in the low CAR group was significantly higher than that in the high CAR group (p< 0.05). Moreover, patients with pathological I+II stage survived longer than those with pathological III stage, and the mean survival time of DFS and OS in the low CAR group was significantly higher than that in the high CAR group (p< 0.05). Patients without lymph vessel invasion survived longer than those with lymph vessel invasion (p< 0.05), and the mean survival time of DFS and OS in low the CAR group was significantly higher than that in the high CAR group (p< 0.05).
Conclusion: Preoperative CAR was significantly associated with survival and prognosis of breast cancer, and it can be used as a routine prognostic indicator to predict the prognosis of luminal B subtype breast cancer.
Keywords: hypersensitive-c-reactive-proteins, Hs-CRP, albumin, ALB, breast cancer, prognosis