Prognostic Value of Preoperative Nutritional Assessment and Neutrophil-to-Lymphocyte Ratio in Patients With Thymic Epithelial Tumors

IntroductionSystemic nutrition and immune inflammation are the key factors in cancer development and metastasis. This study aimed to compare and assess four nutritional status and immune indicators: prognostic nutritional index (PNI), nutritional risk index (NRI), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and the systemic immune-inflammatory index (SII) as prognostic indicators for patients with thymic epithelial tumors. MaterialsWe retrospectively reviewed 154 patients who underwent thymic epithelial tumor resection at our hospital between 2004 and 2015. The optimal cutoff value for each nutritional and immune index was obtained using the X-tile software. Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models were used for survival analysis. ResultsUnivariate analysis showed that PNI, NRI, NLR, SII, albumin (ALB), the albumin/globulin ratio (A/G), WHO stage, T stage, and drinking history were associated with the overall survival (OS) of patients (P < 0.05). The NRI, NLR, A/G, ALB, T stage, and WHO stage were significant independent prognostic factors of OS in multivariate analysis (P < 0.05). Finally, we constructed a coNRI-NLR model to predict OS and recurrence-free survival (RFS). ConclusionsThis study suggests that the preoperative NRI, NLR, and coNRI-NLR model may be important prognostic factors for patients with thymic epithelial tumors who undergo surgical resection.

Automated summary

Systemic nutrition and immune inflammation are crucial in cancer development and metastasis. This study compared and assessed four nutritional and immune indicators as prognostic factors for patients with thymic epithelial tumors. The study suggests that preoperative nutritional risk index, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and a combined nutritional risk index-neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio model may be important prognostic factors for these patients.