Correlation between serum prealbumin and prognosis of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after hepatectomy

OBJECTIVE To determine whether serum prealbumin levels are associated with long-term survival after hepatectomy in patients with primary hepatocellular carcinoma(HCC). METHODS A consecutive sample of 526 patients with HCC who underwent potentially curative hepatectomy from August 2007 to August 2010 was retrospectively analyzed. Patients were classified as having normal or reduced serum prealbumin based on cut-off values of 200 or 182 mg/L. RESULTS Multivariate analysis identified the preoperative level of serum prealbumin as an independent prognostic factor of long-term survival (P