High preoperative serum globulin in rectal cancer treated with neoadjunctive chemoradiation therapy is a risk factor for poor outcome.

An elevated serum albumin (ALB) and albumin/globulin ratio (AGR) has been reported to be associated with a favorable prognosis for certain malignancies; however, little is known about the prognostic significance of globulin (GLB) in rectal cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy (NCRT). The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether GLB analysis could predict the prognosis of patients received NCRT. A retrospective cohort of 293 locally advanced rectal cancer patients receiving NCRT followed by radical surgery was recruited between January 2006 and December 2012 at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center. Levels for preoperative GLB and ALB were obtained and used to calculate the AGR. Survival analysis was used to evaluate the predictive value of GLB. X-tile program determined 28.50, 36.20 and 1.20 as optimal cut-off value for GLB, ALB and AGR in terms of survival. Univariate and multivariate analysis revealed that low GLB levels were significantly associated with favorable rectal cancer-specific survival (RCSS) (P < 0.05). Conversely, low ALB levels were associated with a significantly worse RCSS (P = 0.010). Collectively, high preoperative GLB level was a significantly unfavorable factor for rectal cancer patients treated with NCRT. This easily obtained variable may serve as a valuable marker to predict the outcomes of such patient population.