Pretreatment fibrinogen levels are associated with survival outcome in patients with cancer using immunotherapy as a second‑line treatment

The present study aimed to investigate the predictive value of pretreatment fibrinogen (FIB) levels in patients with cancer who received immunotherapy as a second-line treatment. A total of 61 patients with stage III–IV cancer were included. The cut-off value of FIB for predicting overall survival (OS) was determined by receiver operating characteristic curve analysis. The prognostic value of pretreatment FIB on progression-free survival (PFS) and OS was determined by univariate and multivariate analyses. Based on a cut-off point of 3.47 g/l, patients were divided into low pretreatment FIB (<3.47 g/l) and high pretreatment FIB (≥3.47 g/l) groups. A high pretreatment FIB level was more common in older patients (P=0.03). Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients with high pretreatment FIB levels had shorter PFS and OS times than patients with low FIB levels (P<0.05). In multivariate analysis, pretreatment FIB was an independent prognostic factor for OS [hazard ratio (HR), 6.06; 95% CI, 2.01–18.28; P<0.01] and OS from the initiation of second-line treatment (HR, 3.69; 95% CI, 1.28-10.63; P=0.02). Overall, FIB is associated with survival outcome in patients with cancer who are administered immunotherapy as a second-line treatment.