The Prognostic Value of Preoperative Serum Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) Levels in Patients Underwent Curative-intent Hepatectomy For Colorectal Liver Metastases: A Two-Center Cohort Study

Background. The prognostic value of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in colorectal cancer patients has remained inconsistent between non-metastatic and metastatic settings. So far, very few studies have included LDH in the prognostic analysis of curative-intent surgery for colorectal liver metastases (CRLM).Patients and Methods. 580 consecutive metastatic colorectal cancer patients who underwent curative-intent CRLM resection from Blinded for peer review (434 patients) and Blinded for peer review (146 patients) treated in 2000-2019 were enrolled. Overall survival (OS) was the primary endpoint. Cox regression model was performed to identify the prognostic values of preoperative serum LDH levels and other clinicopathology variables. A modification of the established Fong CRS scoring system comprising LDH was developed within this Chinese population.Results. At the median follow-up time of 60.5 months, and median OS was 59.5 months in the pooled cohort. In the multivariate analysis, preoperative LDH > upper limit of normal (250 U/L) was the strongest independent prognostic factor for OS (HR 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22-2.44; P < .001). Patients with elevated LDH levels showed impaired OS than patients with normal LDH levels (27.6 months vs. 68.8 months). Five-year survival rates were 53.7% and 22.5% in the LDH-normal group and LDH-high group, respectively. Similar results were also confirmed in each cohort. In the subgroup analysis, LDH could distinguish the survival regardless of most established prognostic factors (number and size of CRLM, surgical margin, extrahepatic metastases, CEA and CA19-9 levels, etc.). Integrating LDH into the Fong score contributed to an improvement in the predictive value. Conclusion. Our study implicates serum LDH as a reliable and independent laboratory biomarker to predict the clinical outcome of curative-intent surgery for CRLM. Composite of LDH and Fong score is a potential stratification tool for CRLM resection. Prospective, international studies are needed to validate these results across diverse populations.