Abstract: BACKGROUND: Fibrinogen, a 340 kDa glycoprotein synthesized in the liver, is known to be
involved in tumor angiogenesis, enlargement, and metastasis. Elevated plasma
fibrinogen levels are associated with tumor progression in many cancer
patients. However, there are no reports about differences in fibrinogen
levels between benign and malignant soft tissue tumors. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to clarify whether preoperative plasma
fibrinogen levels can be used for differential diagnosis of benign or
malignant soft tissue tumors. METHODS: The plasma fibrinogen levels from 102 primary soft tissue tumor patients
were measured before biopsy or treatment. Fibrinogen levels were analyzed
and compared to various clinical parameters. RESULTS: According to receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, a
threshold of serum fibrinogen of 315 mg/dL identified malignant patients
with 60.9% sensitivity and 87.5% specificity. The diagnostic accuracy
was evaluated by area under the curve (AUC: 0.805). Over 315 mg/dL of
fibrinogen was associated with a significantly increased risk of malignancy
by multiple logistic regression analysis (OR: 6.452, p= 0.0004). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that plasma fibrinogen levels have a relationship with tumor
malignancy of soft tissue tumors. High fibrinogen levels can be a helpful
subsidiary tool for the prediction of malignant soft tissue tumors with
other diagnostic tools.
