ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the predictive value of preoperative alkaline phosphatase to prealbumin ratio (APR) in prognosis and postoperative complications for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) after radical tumor resection. Methods A total of 217 HCC patients who underwent radical tumor resection in the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery of the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University from January 2013 to August 2021 were retrospectively recruited and their clinical data were statistically analyzed. The X-tile software was used to obtain the optimal cutoff value of APR. The χ 2 test was conducted to analyze association between preoperative APR and other clinicopathological characteristics. The Kaplan-Meier curve was plotted and the Log-rank test was performed to analyze survival of patients. The univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to analysis factors affecting the prognosis of HCC patients. The univariate analysis and multivariate Logistic regression were used to identify factors related with postoperative complications. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to determine the predicting value of APR. Results The optimal cutoff value for APR ratio was 0.5 and these 217 patients were divided into the low- and high APR groups (111 vs 106 cases) accordingly. Compared with the low-APR group, the proportion of patients with ALT (> 50 U/L), Alb (< 40 g/L), the CNLC of the III stage, open surgery, liver cirrhosis, multiple tumor lesions, postoperative complication, and major complication were significantly increased in the high-APR patients (all P < 0.05). Moreover, the 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS were 86.0%, 74.9%, and 71.3%, respectively in the low-APR patients, while the numbers were 79.2%, 57.5%, and 47.0%, respectively, in the high-APR patients, indicating that patients in high-APR group had significantly worse OS ( P =0.002). AFP ( HR =1.774, 95% CI : 1.107-2.843, P =0.017), CNLC stage ( HR =2.708, 95% CI : 1.514-4.844, P =0.001), tumor size ( HR =1.696, 95% CI : 1.060-2.714, P =0.028), and APR ( HR =2.022, 95% CI : 1.244-3.285, P =0.004) were all independent risk predictors for OS. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year RFS were 82.3%, 69.4%, and 61.3%, respectively, in the low-APR patients, whereas the numbers were 76.2%, 54.4%, and 44.2%, respectively in the high-APR patients, suggesting that high-APR patients had significantly worse recurrence-free survival ( P =0.016). The CNLC stage ( HR =2.509, 95% CI : 1.423-4.422, P =0.001), tumor size ( HR =1.725, 95% CI : 1.119-2.660, P =0.014), and APR ( HR =1.619: 95% CI : 1.037-2.527, P =0.034) were all independent FRS predictors. Hypertension ( OR =3.09, 95% CI : 1.385-6.893, P =0.006), open surgery ( OR =4.198, 95% CI : 1.779-9.907, P =0.001), liver cirrhosis ( OR =2.376, 95% CI : 1.194-4.729, P =0.014), and APR ( OR =2.151, 95% CI : 1.160-3.986, P =0.015) were all independent risk predictors for the postoperative major complications. The AUC for APR, ALP, a nd PA in predicting the major complications was 0.625 (95% CI : 0.547-0.702), 0.613 (95% CI : 0.534-0.693), and 0.554 (0.474-0.634). Conclusion Preoperative APR could be used to predict prognosis and postoperative major complications of HCC patients after radical tumor resection.