Significance of serum ferritin as a prognostic factor in advanced hepatobiliary cancer patients treated with Korean medicine: a retrospective cohort study.

BMC Complement Altern Med

Department of Clinical Oncology, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, 892 Dongnam-ro, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, 05278, Republic of Korea.

Published: June 2018

Background: Advanced hepatobiliary cancers are highly lethal cancers that require precise prediction in clinical practice. Serum ferritin level increases in malignancy and high serum ferritin level is associated with poor survival in various cancers. This study aimed to identify whether serum ferritin could independently predict the overall survival (OS) of patients with advanced hepatobiliary cancers.

Methods: The retrospective cohort study was performed by reviewing medical records of patients with advanced hepatobiliary cancers from June 2006 to September 2016. The demographic and clinicopathological characteristics as well as the biochemical markers were evaluated at the initiation of Korean medicine (KM) treatment. The OS was calculated using Kaplan-Meier estimates. The Cox proportional hazard model was used to identify the independent prognostic significance of serum ferritin for survival.

Results: The median OS of all subjects was 5.1 months (range, 0.5-114.9 months). The median OS of group with low ferritin levels and that with high ferritin levels was 7.5 months (range, 0.7-114.9 months) and 2.8 months (range, 0.5-22.8 months), respectively (P < 0.001). The results of the univariate analysis showed that the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG-PS) (P = 0.002), tumor type (P = 0.001), prior treatment (P = 0.023), serum ferritin (P < 0.001), hemoglobin (P = 0.002), total bilirubin (P = 0.002), gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (P = 0.007), albumin (P = 0.013), white blood cell (P = 0.002), and C-reactive protein (CRP) (P < 0.001) were significant factors for the patients' survival outcome. On multivariate analysis controlling confounding factors, ferritin (P = 0.041), CRP (P = 0.010), ECOG-PS (P = 0.010), and tumor type (P = 0.018) were identified as independent prognostic factors for survival.

Conclusions: These results indicate that serum ferritin is a valid clinical biochemical marker to predict survival of patients with advanced hepatobiliary cancers.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5992645PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12906-018-2240-7DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

serum ferritin
20
advanced hepatobiliary
16
significance serum
8
korean medicine
8
retrospective cohort
8
cohort study
8
hepatobiliary cancers
8
ferritin level
8
patients advanced
8
ferritin levels
8

Similar Publications

Ferritin, a highly conserved iron storage protein, is among the earliest proteins that have been purified, named, and characterized due to its unique properties that continue to captivate researchers. Ferritin is composed of 24 subunits that form an almost spherical shell delimiting a cavity where thousands of iron atoms can be stored in a nontoxic ferric form, thereby preventing cytosolic iron from catalyzing oxidative stress. Mitochondrial and extracellular ferritin have also been described and characterized, with the latter being associated with several signaling functions.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Delayed cord clamping (DCC) has been widely adopted in both term and preterm infants to improve neonatal outcomes by increasing blood volume and supporting oxygenation. However, the optimal cord management for intrauterine growth-restricted (IUGR) infants is unclear. To systematically review and meta-analyze the effects of DCC compared to early cord clamping (ECC) in IUGR infants.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Tamoxifen is an inhibitor of estrogen receptors and was originally developed for breast cancer therapy. Besides, tamoxifen is widely used for Cre-estrogen receptor-mediated conditional knockout in transgenic mice. However, we found that the 3-month feeding of 0.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of Peripheral Neuropathy (using nerve conduction studies (NCS)) in children with transfusion-dependent thalassemia aged between 5 to 18 years and to study its correlation with chronic anemia, ferritin levels, chelation status, annual transfusion requirement, deficiency of serum Vitamin B12, and Folate levels.

Methods: In this hospital-based cross-sectional study, 100 eligible children were enrolled in a tertiary care teaching hospital in New Delhi, India. Neurological examinations focusing on peripheral neuropathy followed by NCS were performed on all the patients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

High taurocholic acid concentration induces ferroptosis by downregulating FTH1 expression in intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy.

BMC Pregnancy Childbirth

January 2025

School of Medicine, The International Peace Maternity and Child Health Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China.

Background: Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is the most common liver disorder associated with pregnancy and is usually diagnosed based on high serum bile acid. However, the pathogenesis of ICP is unclear. Ferroptosis has been reported as an iron-dependent mechanism of cell death.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!