Abstract:
Objective To investigate the correlation between the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and postoperative complications or survival rates in patients with esophageal cancer who have undergone surgery.
Methods This study retrospectively reviewed and analyzed 258 patients who were pathologically diagnosed with esophageal cancer and underwent surgery between January 2010 and December 2011 in the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China. Among them, 157 patients were in the high (H)-PNI group, and 101 patients were in the low (L)-PNI group. The clinicopathologic features, postoperative complication rates, median survival time, and 5- year survival rates in the two groups were analyzed.
Results Patients in the L- PNI group had greater pathologic tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage, larger tumors, lower serum albumin levels, greater percentage of smoking habits, and a history of alcohol consumption compared with patients in the H-PNI group (P < 0.05). The H-PNI group was associated with significantly fewer postoperative complications compared with the L-PNI group (P < 0.05). The H-PNI group was associated with significantly longer median survival time (MST) and 1-, 3-, and 5-year overall survival (53.3 month, 87.3%, 71.3%, 50.3%) compared with the L-PNI group (41.5 month, 76.2%, 56.4%, 32.7%)(P < 0.001). The multivariate analyses showed that TNM staging and PNI status were independent factors in predicting survival rates.
Conclusions The preoperative PNI can be a potential predictor for the prognosis of patients with esophageal cancer after surgery.