PURPOSE: To investigate the prognostic value of preoperative serum albumin to globulin ratio (AGR) in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) treated with transurethral resection of bladder tumor (TURB) with or without intravesical therapy (IVT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed 1,096 consecutive patients with NMIBC. Levels of albumin and globulin were obtained before TURB and used to calculate the preoperative AGR level. Multivariable Cox regression analyses were performed to assess the prognostic effect of preoperative AGR on oncologic outcomes. Subgroup analyses were performed in patients based on the European Association of Urology (EAU) risk groups for NMIBC. RESULTS: Low AGR levels were observed in 389 (35.5%) patients. The median follow-up was 63.7 months (IQR 25.3-111). On multivariable Cox regression analysis, low AGR was associated with increased risk of progression to muscle-invasive BCa (MIBC) (HR 1.81, 95% CI 1.22-2.68, P = 0.003). The addition of AGR only minimally improved the discrimination ability of a base model that included established clinicopathologic features (C-index = 0.7354 vs. C-index = 0.7162). Low preoperative AGR was not significantly associated with the risk of disease recurrence (P = 0.31). In subgroup analyses based on patients' EAU risk groups, low preoperative AGR was not associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS) (P = 0.59) or progression-free survival (PFS) (P = 0.22) in any of the risk groups. Additionally, in patients treated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) for intermediate- or high-risk NMIBC, low AGR failed to predict disease recurrence or progression. CONCLUSION: Preoperative serum AGR levels independently predicted the risk of disease progression in patients with NMIBC. However, it was not found to be associated with either RFS or PFS in NMIBC patients based on their EAU risk group. This marker seems to have a limited role in NMIBC at the present time. However, further research is needed to investigate this marker in combination with other systemic inflammatory markers to help improve prediction in this heterogeneous group of patients.

• Keywords
• AGR, Albumin, BCG, Bladder cancer, Globulin, Non-muscle-invasive, Progression,
• MeSH
• Cystectomy * methods   MeSH
• Neoplasm Invasiveness MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Urinary Bladder Neoplasms blood   pathology   surgery   MeSH
• Preoperative Period MeSH
• Prognosis MeSH
• Retrospective Studies MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Serum Globulins analysis   MeSH
• Serum Albumin analysis   MeSH
• Urethra MeSH
• Check Tag
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Serum Globulins MeSH
• Serum Albumin MeSH

This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess the prognostic value of preoperative hematologic biomarkers in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the bladder treated with radical cystectomy. PUBMED, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Scopus databases were searched in September 2019 according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis statement. Studies were deemed eligible if they compared cancer-specific survival in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the bladder with and without pretreatment laboratoryabnormalities. Formal meta-analyses were performed for this outcome. The systematic review identified 36 studies with 23,632 patients, of these, 32 studies with 22,224 patients were eligible for the meta-analysis. Several preoperative hematologic biomarkers were significantly associated with cancer-specific survival as follows: neutrophil - lymphocyte ratio (pooled hazard ratio [HR]: 1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.11-1.29), hemoglobin (pooled HR: 0.87, 95% CI 0.82-0.94), C-reactive protein (pooled HR: 1.44, 95% CI 1.26-1.66), De Ritis ratio (pooled HR: 2.18, 95% CI 1.37-3.48), white blood cell count (pooled HR: 1.05, 95% CI 1.02-1.07), and albumin-globulin ratio (pooled HR: 0.26, 95% CI 0.14-0.48). Several pretreatment laboratory abnormalities in patients with urothelial carcinoma of the bladder were associated with cancer-specific mortality. Therefore, it might be useful to incorporate such hematologic biomarkers into prognostic tools for urothelial carcinoma of the bladder. However, given the study limitations including heterogeneity and retrospective nature of the primary data, the conclusions should be interpreted with caution.

• Keywords
• Hematologic biomarker, Meta-analysis, Urothelial carcinoma of the bladder,
• MeSH
• Biomarkers blood   MeSH
• C-Reactive Protein analysis   MeSH
• Cystectomy methods   MeSH
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Lymphocytes pathology   MeSH
• Urinary Bladder Neoplasms blood   mortality   surgery   MeSH
• Neutrophils pathology   MeSH
• Leukocyte Count MeSH
• Platelet Count MeSH
• Preoperative Period MeSH
• Prognosis MeSH
• Proportional Hazards Models MeSH
• Retrospective Studies MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Check Tag
• Middle Aged MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Male MeSH
• Aged MeSH
• Female MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Meta-Analysis MeSH
• Systematic Review MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Biomarkers MeSH
• C-Reactive Protein MeSH