ObjectiveTo explore the correlation of serum soluble T cell immunoglobulin mucin 3 (sTIM-3) and human cartilage glycoprotein 39 (YKL-40) levels with postoperative prognosis in patients undergoing gallbladder carcinoma surgery. MethodsA total of 110 patients with gallbladder carcinoma were enrolled, and they were assigned to favorable prognosis group (65 cases) or adverse prognosis group (45 cases) according to postoperative follow-up status. The general clinical data, preoperative serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels were compared between the two groups. The Kaplan-Meier method was applied to analyze the relation of preoperative different serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels with postoperative prognosis in patients with gallbladder carcinoma. The multivariate COX regression model was employed to analyze the factors for affecting postoperative adverse prognosis in patients with gallbladder carcinoma. The receiver operating characteristic curve was used to analyze the value of preoperative serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels for alone and jointly predicting postoperative adverse prognosis in patients with gallbladder carcinoma. ResultsCompared with the favorable prognosis group, the proportions of patients in low/medium differentiation degree of tumor, with tumor diameter larger than 3 cm, with presence of lymph nodes metastasis, with common bile duct infiltration, with liver infiltration in the adverse prognosis group were elevated, and levels of preoperative serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 in the adverse prognosis group were also elevated (P<0.05). Patients with low sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels obtained higher 3-year survival rates and 3-year progress-free survival rates as compared with patients with high sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels, respectively (P<0.05). Elevated preoperative serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels, low/medium differentiation degree of tumor, lymph nodes metastasis were the risk factors for patients with gallbladder carcinoma suffering from postoperative adverse prognosis (P<0.05). Areas under the curve (AUC) of preoperative serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels for alone and jointly predicting postoperative adverse prognosis in patients with gallbladder carcinoma were 0.782, 0.785, and 0.903, respectively, and AUC of combination of the two was superior to AUC of single indicator (P<0.05). ConclusionThe elevations of preoperative serum sTIM-3 and YKL-40 levels are closely related to postoperative adverse prognosis in patients with gallbladder carcinoma, and the two exert a predictive value on postoperative prognosis in patients undergoing gallbladder carcinoma surgery to a certain extent, as well as the combination of the two exerts higher predictive efficiency.