Prognostic value of pretreatment albumin to bilirubin ratio in patients with hepatocellular cancer: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Hepatic function is closely associated with prognosis in patients with hepatocellular cancer (HCC). In this study, a meta-analysis of the published studies was performed to assess the prognostic value of ALBI grade in HCC patients. METHODS: Databases, including PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library were retrieved up to August 2018. The primary outcome was OS and secondary outcome was DFS, the prognostic impact of which was assessed by using hazard ratio (HRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The enrolled studies were analyzed by using STATA version 12.0 software. RESULTS: A total of 22,911 patients with HCC in 32 studies were included. Our results demonstrated that high pretreatment ALBI is associated with poor OS (HR = 1.719, 95%CI: 1.666–1.771, P = .000, univariate results; HR = 1.602, 95%CI: 1.470–1.735, P = .000, multivariate results) and poor DFS (HR = 1.411, 95%CI: 1.262–1.561, P = .000, univariate results; HR = 1.264, 95%CI: 1.042–1.485, P = .000, multivariate results). Meanwhile, when the analysis was stratified into subgroups, such as treatment methods, sample size, geographic area, and ALBI grade, the significant correlation in ALBI and poor long-term survival was not altered. CONCLUSION: High pretreatment ALBI is closely associated with poor prognosis in HCC, and High ALBI should be treated as an ideal predictor during hepatocellular therapy.