Albumin and its association with lung cancer: An Indian perspective

Abstract

Studies have been carried out world over, to evaluate the role of albumin in lung cancer. However, limited studies which have addressed association of albumin with patient factors such as type of lung cancer, gender, performance status, stage, hemoglobin levels, and neutrophil lymphocyte ratio. In our study, we aimed to evaluate the association of albumin with these factors. Amongst the 100 lung cancer cases, 69 were adenocarcinoma, 16 squamous cell, 13 small cell and 2 adenosquamous and, value of albumin below 3.4gm/dl was taken as hypoalbuminemia. Hypoalbuminemia was seen in 84% of small cell, 65% of adenocarcinoma, performance score (PS) of 1 - 47%, PS2- 61%, PS3- 75%, 65% of females, 61% of males, 70% of cases with symptoms less than 3 months duration, 41% of more than 3 months duration, 76% of stage IV, 13% of stage III, 68% of the males with anemia, 35% males with normal hemoglobin, 86% of females with anemia, and 14% with normal Hb. Lower albumin values co-relate with advanced disease and is considered as an adverse prognostic factor. However, this association is not absolute, as a significant number of patients without adverse features also have hypoalbuminemia. There are probably multiple roles of albumin in a cancer patient along with multiple factors effecting albumin levels whether treating hypoalbuminemia with albumin improve overall survival also need to be elucidated by further studies.