Value of PLR combined with PNI score in predicting the prognosis of gastric cancer

ObjectiveTo evaluate the value of platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR)-prognostic nutritional index (PNI) score based on preoperative PLR and PNI in predicting the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer.

MethodsThe clinical data of 171 patients undergoing radical gastrectomy for gastric cancer were analyzed retrospectively, and the optimal cut-off values of PLR and PNI were determined according to the 5-year survival rate through the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.According to the cut-off value, they were divided into high PLR group (PLR≥148, 1 point) and low PLR group (PLR < 148, 0 point), high PNI group (PNI ≥47, 0 point) and low PNI group (PNI < 47, 1 point).The prognosis of patients with different scores was evaluated.

ResultsThe 5-year overall survival rate of patients with PLR-PNI value of 2 was lower than that of patients with PLR-PNI value of 1 or 0 (11.36% vs 32.79 or 63.64, P < 0.05).Multivariate analysis showed that poor tumor differentiation, late TNM staging, and high PLR-PNI score were independent risk factors for postoperative prognosis of patients with gastric cancer (P < 0.01).

ConclusionsPreoperative high PLR-PNI is an independent factor to predict the poor prognosis of gastric cancer.Thus, the scoring system can be used to differentiate high-risk patients in clinical work.