Performance of nutritional and inflammatory markers in patients with pancreatic cancer

Systemic inflammation and nutrition play pivotal roles in cancer progression and can increase the risk of delayed recovery after surgical procedures.

To assess the significance of inflammatory and nutritional indicators for the prognosis and postoperative recovery of patients with pancreatic cancer (PC).

Patients who were diagnosed with PC and underwent surgical resection at our hospital between January 1, 2019, and July 31, 2023, were enrolled in this retrospective observational cohort study. All the data were collected from the electronic medical record system. Seven biomarkers - the albumin-to-globulin ratio, prognostic nutritional index (PNI), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), nutritional risk index (NRI), and geriatric NRI were assessed.

A total of 446 patients with PC met the inclusion criteria and were subsequently enrolled. Patients with early postoperative discharge tended to have higher PNI values and lower SII, NLR, and PLR values (all P < 0.05). Through multivariable logistic regression analysis, the SII value emerged as an independent risk factor influencing early recovery after surgery. Additionally, both univariable and multivariable Cox regression analyses revealed that the PNI value was the strongest prognostic marker for overall survival (OS; P = 0.028) and recurrence-free survival (RFS; P < 0.001). The optimal cutoff PNI value was established at 47.30 using X-tile software. Patients in the PNI-high group had longer OS (P < 0.001) and RFS (P = 0.0028) times than those in the PNI-low group.

Preoperative systemic inflammatory-nutritional biomarkers may be capable of predicting short-term recovery after surgery as well as long-term patient outcomes.