Correlation between metastatic lymph node ratio and prognosis in patients with extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma

To investigate the prognostic value of metastatic lymph node ratio (MLNR) in extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ECC) patients undergoing radical resection.

Seventy-eight patients with ECC were enrolled. Associations between various clinicopathologic factors and prognosis were investigated by Kaplan-Meier analyses. The Cox proportional-hazards model was used for multivariate survival analysis.

The overall three- and five-year survival rates were 47.26% and 23.99%, respectively. MLNR of 0, 0-0.2, 0.2-0.5, and > 0.5 corresponded to five-year survival rates of 28.59%, 21.60%, 18.84%, and 10.03%, respectively. Univariate analysis showed that degree of tumor differentiation, lymph node metastasis, MLNR, tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, and margin status were closely associated with postoperative survival in ECC patients (P < 0.05). Multivariate analysis showed that MLNR and TNM stage were independent prognostic factors after pancreaticoduodenectomy (HR = 2.13, 95%CI: 1.45-3.11; P < 0.01; and HR = 1.97, 95%CI: 1.17-3.31; P = 0.01, respectively). The median survival time for MLNR > 0.5, 0.2-0.5, 0-0.2, and 0 was 15 mo, 24 mo, 23 mo, and 35.5 mo, respectively. There were statistical differences in survival time between patients with different MLNR (χ(2) = 15.38; P < 0.01).

MLNR is an independent prognostic factor for ECC patients after radical resection and is useful for predicting postoperative survival.