Prognostic value of the fibrinogen/albumin ratio (FAR) in patients with operable soft tissue sarcoma

BACKGROUND: Coagulation and nutrition play important roles in cancer progression. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the prognostic value of the preoperative fibrinogen/albumin ratio (FAR) in surgical patients with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and to compare this value with other inflammatory biomarkers. In addition, we investigated the relationship between FAR and the clinicopathological characteristics of STS patients. METHODS: We included 310 STS patients in this retrospective study. Kaplan-Meier curves, univariate and multivariate Cox proportional models were used in the prognostic analyses. RESULTS: According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the optimal FAR cut-off value was 0.0726. The FAR exhibited a greater area under the curve (AUC) value (0.680) than did the NLR and PLR. An elevated FAR (≥0.0726) was significantly associated with an old age, large tumor size, deep tumor location, high tumor grade, and advanced American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) stage. Patients with an increased FAR had a shorter median survival time and a lower 5-year overall survival (OS) rate than did those with a low FAR (61.0 vs115.8 months, P < 0.001; 56.7% vs 82.4%, P < 0.001, respectively). Multivariate analysis indicated FAR (Hazard ratio (HR) 1.907, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.161–3.132, P < 0.001) to be an independent prognostic factor for OS, as were tumor depth, grade and PLR. CONCLUSIONS: Preoperative FAR is associated with tumor progression and can be considered an independent factor for OS of resected STS patients. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-018-4856-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.