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Author Spotlight: Advancing Early Detection and Treatment of Gastrointestinal Tumors
Published on: February 16, 2024
Modified Albumin-Bilirubin Grade optimized for risk stratification of patients with stage II-III gastric cancer
Michita Shoka1, Mitsuro Kanda2, Seiji Ito3
1Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, 65 Tsurumai-Cho, Showa-Ku, Nagoya, 466-8550, Japan.
Purpose:
The albumin-bilirubin (ALBI) grade is calculated using albumin and bilirubin values. We determined the optimal cutoff value of the ALBI grade for predicting the postoperative prognosis of gastric cancer (GC).
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed a multicenter database of 3571 patients who underwent gastrectomy for GC between January 2010 and December 2014. The modified ALBI (mALBI) grade was determined using cutoff values: grade 1 (mALBI ≤ - 2.70), 2 (mALBI - 2.70 to - 2.10), and 3 (mALBI > - 2.10). We used a validation cohort to evaluate reproducibility.
Results:
The entire cohort (n = 956) was randomly assigned to the learning or validation cohorts (n = 478 each). The former was categorized into the following groups by the preoperative mALBI grade: grade 1 (n = 235), grade 2 (n = 162), and grade 3 (n = 81). The disease-specific survival (DSS) rates of the learning and validation cohorts were significantly shortened in association with higher mALBI grade (learning, p = 0.0068; validation, p = 0.0100). A multivariate analysis revealed that mALBI grade 3 served as an independent prognostic factor for DSS. Furthermore, mALBI grade 2 or 3 was associated with a greater risk of disease-specific death in most subgroups.
Conclusion:
The mALBI grade accurately predicted the long-term postoperative prognosis of locally advanced GC.
