External validation of preoperative AST/ALT (De-Ritis) ratio as a prognostic indicator in localized and metastatic renal cell carcinoma.

Abstract

589 Background: Recently, the De-Ritis ratio, defined as the ratio of preoperative aspartate aminotransferase (AST) to alanine aminotransferase (ALT), was shown to be an independent predictor of overall and recurrence-free survival in a European cohort with localized renal cell carcinoma (RCC). In this study, we perform an external validation of the De-Ritis ratio as a prognostic indicator in a distinct cohort of patients with localized and metastatic RCC. Methods: Patients that underwent nephrectomy for localized and metastatic RCC between 2001 and 2014 with available laboratory values within one week of surgery were queried from the Emory Nephrectomy Database. De-Ritis ratio of 1.2 was used to divide subjects into high and low subgroups. Using clinical follow-up data, prognostic value of the De-Ritis ratio was analyzed using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional regression models. Results: In a cohort of 451 patients, an elevated De-Ritis ratio (AST/ALT ≥ 1.2) was associated with significantly decreased overall survival (log-rank, p=0.0023) and recurrence-free survival (Log-rank, p=0.0395). On multivariate analysis, De-Ritis ratio was shown to be an independent and significant predictor of overall survival (HR=0.52, p=0.002) and recurrence-free survival (HR=0.47, p=0.014) as seen in Table. Conclusions: Elevated De-Ritis ratio (AST/ALT ≥ 1.2) is an independent and significant predictor of overall and recurrence-free survival and is capable of differentiating high-risk disease in patients with localized and metastatic RCC. These findings are consistent with a previous study investigating the prognostic value of the De-Ritis ratio in a European cohort, and further validates its prognostic ability in a geographically distinct cohort including patients who presented with metastatic disease [Table: see text]