Early post-operative serum albumin level predicts survival after curative nephrectomy for kidney cancer: a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that albumin-related systemic inflammation is associated with the long-term prognosis of cancer, but the clinical significance of an early (≤ 7 days) post-operative serum albumin level has not been well-documented as a prognostic factor in patients with renal cell cancer. METHODS: We retrospectively included patients hospitalized for kidney cancer from January 2009 to May 2014. First, the receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to define the best cut-off of an early post-operative serum albumin level in determining the prognosis, from which survival analysis was performed. RESULTS: A total of 329 patients were included. The median duration of follow-up was 54.8 months. Patients with an early post-operative serum albumin level < 32 g/L had a significantly shorter median recurrence-free survival (RFS; 49.1 versus 56.5 months, P = 0.001) and median overall survival (OS; 52.2 versus 57.0 months, P = 0.049) than patients with an early post-operative serum albumin level ≥ 32 g/L. After adjusting for age, BMI, tumor stage, post-operative hemoglobin concentration, and pre-operative albumin, globulin, and hemoglobin levels, multivariate Cox regression showed that an early post-operative serum albumin level < 32 g/L was an independent prognostic factor associated with a decreased RFS (HR = 3.60; 95% CI,1.05–12.42 [months], P = 0.042) and decreased OS (HR = 9.95; 95% CI, 1.81–54.80 [months], P = 0.008). CONCLUSION: An early post-operative serum albumin level < 32 g/L is an independent prognostic factor leading to an unfavorable RFS and OS. Prospective trials and further studies involving additional patients are warranted.