Preoperative serum lipids as prognostic predictors in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients with esophagectomy

This study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of serum lipids in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients who underwent esophagectomy. Preoperative serum lipids were collected from 214 patients who were diagnosed with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. All of the patients received esophagectomy in Qilu Hospital of Shandong University from January 2007 to December 2008. The records and data were analyzed retrospectively. We found that low total cholesterol (for T stage, p = 0.006; for TNM stage, p = 0.039) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (for T stage, p = 0.031; for TNM stage, p = 0.035) were associated with advanced T stage and TNM stage. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis indicated that low total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were associated with shorter disease-free survival(for total cholesterol, p = 0.045; for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, p < 0.001) and overall survival (for total cholesterol, p = 0.043; for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, p < 0.001). Lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol ratio (LHR) indicated poorer disease-free survival and overall survival (both p < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and LHR were independent prognostic factors for disease-free survival and overall survival. In conclusion, our study indicated that preoperative serum total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol are prognostic factors for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma patients who underwent esophagectomy. LHR can serve as a promising serum lipids-based prognostic indicator.