Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the main types of esophageal cancer (EC), accounting for more than 90% of patients with EC in China. Although the treatment has been improved in recent years, the prognosis in patients with ESCC is still poor. Therefore, it is necessary to explore more and more prognostic factors.
It is well known that nutritional and inflammatory status are associated with cancer prognosis. HALP (hemoglobin, albumin, lymphocyte and platelet) score is recently proposed to predict the prognosis in patients with several types of cancers. However, the prognostic value of HALP score in patients with ESCC remains unclear.
In the study published in BJBMS, the researchers from Zhejiang Cancer Hospital (Cancer Hospital of University of Chinese Academy of Sciences) evaluated the prognostic value of preoperative HALP score in 355 consecutive patients with resectable ESCC. The 5-year cancer-specific survival (CSS) for preoperative high HALP group was better than that for preoperative low HALP group. Based on these results, the authors concluded that the preoperative HALP score can be regarded as a potential independent prognostic score in patients with resectable ESCC.
The authors concluded that the results of their study have several potential applications in the clinical practice in resectable ESCC patients. The study suggests that it is recommended to alleviate systemic inflammation or to improve the status of malnutrition before surgery, or to conduct adjuvant therapy after surgery in the patients with a low preoperative HALP score.
References:
Feng J-F, Wang L, Yang X. The preoperative hemoglobin, albumin, lymphocyte and platelet (HALP) score is a useful predictor in patients with resectable esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Bosn J of Basic Med Sci. 2021. Available from: https://www.bjbms.org/ojs/index.php/bjbms/article/view/5666
Editor: Edna Skopljak, MD
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