Correlation between serum prealbumin and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy.

Objective To determine whether serum prealbumin levels are associated with long-term survival after hepatectomy in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). Methods A consecutive sample of 526 patients with HCC who underwent potentially curative hepatectomy from August 2007 to August 2010 was retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified as having normal or reduced serum prealbumin based on cut-off values of 200 or 182 mg/L. Results Multivariate analysis identified the preoperative level of serum prealbumin as an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival (P < 0.05): Survival was significantly better for those with normal levels than for those with reduced levels, based on either cut-off value. Similar results were observed in subgroup analyses based on the degree of cirrhosis, level of alpha-fetoprotein and Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage. Conclusions Preoperative level of serum prealbumin may be useful for predicting long-term survival in patients with HCC after hepatectomy.