Significance of multiple preoperative laboratory abnormalities as prognostic indicators in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the upper urinary tract following radical nephroureterectomy

The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of multiple preoperative laboratory abnormalities in upper urinary tract urothelial carcinoma (UUTUC) patients.

This study included a total of 135 consecutive patients with clinically localized UUTUC who underwent radical nephroureterectomy (RNU). The impact of several preoperative blood-based markers in addition to conventional clinical factors on extravesical recurrence-free survival (eRFS) in these patients was retrospectively evaluated.

Despite the lack of a significant correlation between conventional clinical factors and any of the postoperative pathologic parameters, preoperative laboratory abnormalities were shown to have a significant impact on some pathological factors reflecting an aggressive phenotype as follows—C-reactive protein (CRP) level on pathological stage, De Ritis (aspartate transaminase/alanine transaminase) ratio on nodal involvement, and neutrophil−lymphocyte ratio (NLR) on pathological stage. During the observation period of this study (median 36.1 months), extravesical disease recurrence was detected in 44 (32.6%) of the 135 patients with a 5-year eRFS rate of 62.1%. Of several factors examined, the CRP level, De Ritis ratio, and NRL were significantly correlated with eRFS on univariate analysis. Of these significant factors, the De Ritis ratio and NRL were identified as independent predictors of eRFS on multivariate analysis. Moreover, there were significant differences in eRFS according to the positive numbers of these two independent risk factors.

These findings suggest that it is important to consider laboratory abnormalities, particularly the De Ritis ratio and NLR, to predict disease recurrence following RNU in patients with clinically localized UUTUC.