The Prognostic Values of Serum Liver Enzymes in Intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma Patients After Liver Resection: A Multi-Institutional Analysis of 605 Patients.

Purpose: The value of liver enzymes, such as alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), in predicting the prognosis of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) patients who underwent curative resection has not been elucidated. Therefore, we aimed to construct prognostic nomograms for surgically treated ICC patients.

Methods: The impact of liver enzymes on overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) was analysed using Kaplan-Meier analysis and evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. Nomograms were constructed for predicting the probability of 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS and RFS and evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration curves and decision curve analysis (DCA).

Results: High ALT, AST, ALP and GGT levels were associated with worse prognoses in surgically treated ICC patients. Nomograms for OS and RFS were constructed based on five prognostic factors: number of high liver enzyme (No. HLE), CA19-9 ≥ 37 U/mL, multiple tumours, lymph node invasion and microvascular invasion (MVI). Compared with 8th edition TNM stage, these nomograms showed better predictive value. The C-index and 1-, 3- and 5-year areas under the curve (AUCs) of the nomograms for OS and RFS in the discovery and validation cohorts were higher than those of the 8th TNM stage. The calibration plots indicated that there was good agreement between the actual observations and predictions.

Conclusion: Preoperative ALT, AST, ALP and GGT levels could predict prognosis in surgically treated ICC patients. The nomograms showed good predictive ability for predicting the survival of ICC patients.