Preoperative serum albumin is an independent prognostic predictor of survival in ovarian cancer

Ovarian cancer is associated with high mortality due to asymptomatic nature of the disease and advance stage at presentation. In advanced stages, it is associated with cachexia and ascites leading to malnutrition. Nutritional status of a patient with cancer has been well known to be associated with survival and can be assessed by level of albumin in blood. Therefore, in this study, we sought to determine preoperative serum albumin as prognostic predictor of survival in patients with ovarian cancer. Preoperative serum albumin was determined in 235 patients undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer at Royal Derby Hospital. The prognostic predictive value of serum albumin, along with other prognostic markers was then analysed using univariate and multivariate analyses. Low serum albumin was associated with poor survival (P < 0.001) in patients with ovarian cancer. There was an inverse correlation between serum albumin levels and survival with lower levels having poor survival. Patients with serum albumin levels of <25 g/l had a median survival of 4.8 months (95% CI 0-13.1 months), whilst levels >35 g/l were associated with median survival of 43.2 months (95% CI 11.6-20.9). Serum albumin (P < 0.001) retained its significance as an independent predictor of poor survival on Cox's multivariate regression analysis along with Age (P < 0.001) and FIGO stage (P < 0.001). Serum albumin can be used as an independent prognostic predictor of survival in patients with ovarian cancer.