Pre-chemotherapy hemoglobin levels and survival in patients with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer who received a first-line taxane/platinum-based regimen: Results of a multicenter retrospective Italian study

Pre-treatment nutrition-related indicators and the prognosis of patients with newly diagnosed epithelial ovarian cancer: an ambispective cohort study

Background

Few studies have explored the link between nutritional status and prognosis in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), and existing findings are controversial. Thus, this study aimed to explore the effects of pre-treatment nutrition-related indicators on the prognosis of patients with newly diagnosed EOC.

Methods

In this ambispective cohort study, 1,020 patients with EOC diagnosed by pathology examination were enrolled and followed-up until December 31, 2023. Univariate and multivariable analyses were conducted on nutrition-related indicators, including body mass index (BMI), albumin (ALB), hemoglobin (Hb), diabetes mellitus (DM), and hyperlipidemia, along with clinicopathological characteristics that might affect patients' first-line chemotherapy response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). Survival curves were created using the Kaplan-Meier method. A Cox proportional hazards model was established to obtain hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs).

Results

The median follow-up duration was 48 months. Compared with patients having normal nutritional indicators, those with hypoalbuminemia had poorer first-line chemotherapy responses. The proportions of those with complete response (CR), partial response (PR), and stable disease or progressive disease (SD/PD) for the ≤30 g/L, 30 < ALB<35 g/L and normal ALB groups were 57.2, 20.6, and 22.2% vs. 62.0, 22.5, and 15.5% vs.79.5, 13.6, and 6.9%. Patients with hypoalbuminemia had shorter median PFS (mPFS): 15 vs. 19 vs. 57 months in the three groups, respectively; and shorter median OS (mOS): 36 vs. 51 vs. 124 months. Patients with hyperlipidemia also exhibited poorer first-line chemotherapy responses; CR, PR, and SD/PD rates for the hyperlipidemia and non-hyperlipidemia groups were 68.9, 19.5, and 11.6% vs. 76.4, 14.7, and 8.9%, respectively, and shorter mPFS (17 vs. 57 months) and mOS (40 vs. 119 months). Patients with anemia had poorer first-line chemotherapy responses; CR, PR, and SD/PD rates for the anemia and non-anemia groups were 68.4, 19.7, and 11.9% vs. 76.2, 14.9, and 8.9%, respectively. All differences were statistically significant (p < 0.05). Multivariable analysis identified hyperlipidemia as an independent risk factor for PFS (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.083; 95% CI:1.726-2.514; p < 0.001) and OS (HR = 2.158; 95% CI:1.746-2.666; p < 0.001), whereas hypoalbuminemia and anemia were not confirmed as independent prognostic factors. This study found no effect of BMI or DM on patient prognosis.

Conclusion

Pre-treatment hypoalbuminemia, hyperlipidemia, and anemia negatively affected the prognosis of patients with newly diagnosed EOC, with hyperlipidemia being an independent risk factor for shorter survival.

Prechemotherapy Hemoglobin Levels as a Predictive Factor of Ovarian Cancer Survival: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

OBJECTIVES

The impact of anemia on cancer survival has been previously mentioned in various oncological fields. To date, however, it remains unknown whether prechemotherapy hemoglobin (Hgb) levels are predictive of ovarian cancer survival (OC). The purpose of the present systematic review is to accumulate evidence in this field.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We used the Medline, Scopus, Clinicaltrials.gov, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials CENTRAL, and Google Scholar databases in our primary search. The date of our last search was set for July 30, 2018. Statistical meta-analysis was performed with the RevMan 5.3 software.

RESULTS

Overall, 11 articles were included that recruited 1816 women with OC. Five articles that involved 856 OC patients were included in the meta-analysis. Compared with patients with anemia, patients with Hgb levels >12 g/dL had increased odds of overall survival (odds ratio, 1.72; 95% confidence interval: 1.41, 2.10). Similarly, the progression-free survival of patients was significantly affected, although the available data could not be accumulated in a meta-analysis because of the heterogeneity in outcome reporting measures.

CONCLUSIONS

Current evidence suggests that prechemotherapy Hgb levels below the threshold of 12 g/dL can potentially predict worse overall survival of OC patients. Future research is required in the field to elucidate whether several independent variables such as the stage and histology of disease and rates of optimal debulking affect the clinical significance of this association.

The Effects of Anemia and Blood Transfusion on Patients With Stage III-IV Ovarian Cancer

Objectives

The objective of this study was to examine the overall and recurrence-free survival in patients with advanced ovarian cancer based on hemoglobin and blood transfusions.

Methods

A retrospective chart review was performed between 2003 and 2007 on patients with pathologically confirmed stage 3–4 ovarian, fallopian, or peritoneal cancers. Data were collected on date of diagnosis, recurrence and death, stage, grade, age, surgery, estimated blood loss, hemoglobin (nadir and average levels), and number of blood transfusions.

Results

Two hundred sixteen patients were included in the final analysis. In the perichemotherapy, perioperative, and total time frames, 88%, 81%, and 95% of patients were anemic, and 9%, 22%, and 26% of the patients had severe anemia. After adjusting for age, stage, and optimal debulking status, the perichemotherapy hemoglobin level as a continuous variable was weakly associated with recurrence-free survival (adjusted hazard ratio [AHR], 0.98;P= 0.03), and as a categorical variable with both recurrence-free survival (AHR, 2.49;P= 0.003) and overall survival (AHR, 1.91;P= 0.02). The total number of transfusions was also weakly associated with poor recurrence-free survival (AHR, 1.06;P= 0.03).

Conclusions

Our study is a retrospective analysis of the effects of anemia and transfusion on ovarian cancer. The rates of anemia in chemotherapy patients are higher than previously reported. Although maintaining average hemoglobin greater than 80 g/L during chemotherapy portends an improved overall survival, blood transfusion does not have any effect. The role of transfusion should therefore be limited to symptomatic patients while giving 1 unit at a time. Further prospective studies will be needed to confirm these results.

Presence of anemia and poor prognostic factors in patients with endometrial carcinoma

This study evaluated the relationship between pretreatment hemoglobin (Hb) and prognostic factors in Thai patients with endometrial cancer. Medical records of 228 patients who had undergone surgery between January 2005 and December 2007 were retrospectively reviewed. Associations between clinicopathological variables and pretreatment Hb levels were described using Pearson's chi square test or two-tailed Fisher's exact test. Survival analysis was performed with Kaplan-Meier estimates. Univariate and Cox-regression models were used to evaluate the prognostic impact of various factors, including Hb levels, in term of disease-free survival. The median duration of follow-up was 38.2 months. Eighty-nine patients (39%) had a preoperative Hb level of <12 g/dL, these having significantly higher rates of non-endometrioid histology, advanced FIGO stage, lymphovascular space invasion, cervical involvement, adnexal involvement, positive peritoneal cytology, and lymph node involvement than patients with Hb ≥12 g/dL. The 5-year disease-free and overall survival were significantly lower in patients with pretreatment Hb levels <12 g/dL compared with those with Hb ≥12 g/dL (79.3% vs. 89.2%, p=0.044 and 87.6% vs. 99.3%, p<0.001, respectively). In the multivariate analysis only histology, myometrial invasion, and lymphovascular invasion proved to be independent prognostic factors, whereas tumor grading, stage, cervical involvement, adnexal involvement, positive peritoneal cytology, lymph node involvement, and low Hb were not. In conclusion, presence of anemia before treatment may reflect poor prognostic factors in patients with endometrial cancer and low pretreatment hemoglobin level may have a prognostic impact on clinical outcome.

Clinico-pathological and biological prognostic variables in squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva

Several clinical-pathological parameters have been related to survival of patients with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the vulva, whereas few studies have investigated the ability of biological variables to predict the clinical outcome of these patients. The present paper reviews the literature data on the prognostic relevance of lymph node-related parameters, primary tumor-related parameters, FIGO stage, blood variables, and tissue biological variables. Regarding these latter, the paper takes into account the analysis of DNA content, cell cycle-regulatory proteins, apoptosis-related proteins, epidermal growth factor receptor [EGFR], and proteins that are involved in tumor invasiveness, metastasis and angiogenesis. At present, the lymph node status and FIGO stage according to the new 2009 classification system are the main predictors for vulvar squamous cell carcinoma, whereas biological variables do not have yet a clinical relevance and their role is still investigational.

The prognostic impact of duration of anemia during chemotherapy in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer

OBJECTIVE

To propose a measure of anemia to be used as a prognostic factor for progression-free survival and overall survival in advanced epithelial ovarian cancer patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

Seventy-six patients with International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics stage III and stage IV epithelial ovarian cancer who had received at least six courses of platinum- and taxane-based systemic chemotherapy and achieved clinical or pathologic complete response were included. A novel prognostic factor based on the duration of anemia was proposed and the impact of anemia on progression-free and overall survival times was analyzed by a log-rank test and a Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS

We introduce a binary variable, Hb1020, that takes a value of 1 if the duration of a hemoglobin (Hb) level <10 g/dL is ≥20% of the total duration of chemotherapy. We propose Hb1020 as a potential prognostic factor for epithelial ovarian cancer. The 5-year progression-free survival rates were 48.4% in the Hb1020 = 0 group (duration of Hb <10 g/dL <20% of total duration) and 17.7% in the Hb1020 = 1 group (p = .026). The 5-year overall survival rates were 64.6% and 45.0%, respectively (p = .015).

CONCLUSIONS

Hb1020, based on the duration of anemia, is a potential prognostic factor for epithelial ovarian cancer. Using Hb1020, we will be able to administer highly optimized treatment for anemia to improve patient survival. Further independent studies are needed to confirm its prognostic role.