KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the prognostic value of the FAR in predicting OS and DFS in patients with breast cancer.
- Researchers noticed that elevated FAR is a strong predictor of poor prognosis in breast cancer.
Zhanwei Wang and the team aimed to investigate the prognostic value of the fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR) in predicting overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS) in patients with breast cancer. This meta-analysis reviewed and synthesized data from multiple studies to clarify the relationship between FAR and clinical outcomes in breast cancer.
They performed an inclusive analysis by searching PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases up until May 25, 2024. The study involved patients with breast cancer and evaluated the prognostic value of the FAR by calculating combined hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for OS and DFS.
Additionally, correlations between FAR and clinicopathological factors were assessed using combined odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs to determine the relationship between FAR and cancer progression in these patients.
About 8 studies involving 4,094 patients were included in this work. As demonstrated by the combined data, increased FAR significantly predicted poor OS with an HR of 2.84 (95% CI = 1.83-4.39, P < 0.001) and poor DFS with an HR of 2.43 (95% CI = 1.66-3.58, P < 0.001) in patients with breast cancer.
Moreover, the analysis revealed that increased FAR was significantly correlated with age ≥ 50 years (OR = 2.04, 95% CI = 1.37-3.04, P < 0.001), stage III cancer (OR = 1.53, 95% CI = 1.04-2.27, P = 0.033), and the presence of lymph node metastases (OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.11-1.61, P = 0.002). However, FAR was not significantly associated with tumor size, ER/PR/HER-2 status, or lymphovascular invasion in patients with breast cancer.
The study concluded that baseline detection of ct-DNA for EGFR mutations in plasma was not predictive of first-line progression-free survival (PFS) but was associated with the extra thoracic disease. The persistence of ct-DNA at the first follow-up correlated with worse PFS and OS than those who cleared ct-DNA from plasma, particularly among patients treated with 1st/2nd generation EGFR TKIs.
The study received no funds.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39182155/
Wang Z, Shen X. (2024). “Prognostic and clinicopathological significance of fibrinogen-to-albumin ratio (FAR) in patients with breast cancer: a meta-analysis.” World J Surg Oncol. 2024;22(1):220. Published 2024 Aug 24. doi:10.1186/s12957-024-03506-2
