Merve Ayık Türk1 , Özer Özdemir2 , Yasemin Özdoğan2 , Özgür Batum1 , Sinem Ermin2 , Filiz Güldaval3 , Gülru Polat3 2Department of Pulmonology, Dr. Suat Seren Chest Diseases and Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Türkiye
3Department of Pulmonology, University of Health Sciences Izmir Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Suat Seren Chest Diseases and Surgery Training and Research Hospital, Izmir, Türkiye
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Malignant pleural effusion (MPE) is a common complication of cancer and is associated with a poor prognosis. The aim of our study was to investigate the effect of a scoring system (AL score) created by combining serum alkaline phosphatase (sALP) and pleural fluid lactate dehydrogenase (pLDH) on survival in MPE patients.
METHODS: The study had a single-center and retrospective design. Patients who were confirmed to have MPE were included. The association between AL score and overall survival (OS) was investigated.
RESULTS: A total of 231 patients were analyzed. OS was 9.92 months in patients with an AL score of 0–1 and 4.96 months in patients with an AL score of 2 (HR: 1.50, 95% CI: 1.053–2.163, p = 0.02). In multivariate analysis, age, LENT score, and AL score were associated with OS (p = 0.032; 0.001; 0.03; respectively).
CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this study is one of the limited literature reports using the AL score in MPE. AL is a score that can be used to predict survival in MPE patients. Since it is easy to calculate and gives fast results in MPE, it is considered relevant to guide the clinician in the early period.
