The Utility of Immuno-Nutritional Scores in Patients with Testicular Germ Cell Tumors
Uros Bumbasirevic1,2, Milos Petrovic1, Vesna Coric3,4
1Clinic of Urology, University Clinical Center of Serbia, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia.
Background:
Hemoglobin, Albumin, Lymphocyte, and Platelet Score (HALP) is an accessible score that is easily reproducible from routine laboratory testing while also reflecting patients' immune-nutritional status. Along with other immuno-nutritional scores, such as the Prognostic Nutrition Index (PNI), HALP has been associated with a number of clinical and pathological features. The goal of our study was to evaluate the prognostic utility of HALP and PNI scores in testicular germ cell cancer (GCT) patients.
Methods:
This case-only study included 203 testicular GCT patients who were classified according to the disease stage and HALP and PNI cut-offs. Complete blood count and albumin concentration were routinely determined.
Results:
The values of HALP and PNI significantly differed among different clinical stages (p < 0.05). Moreover, they clearly exposed a significantly higher risk of advanced clinical stage development for those testicular GCT patients with lower values of HALP and PNI (p < 0.05). Finally, lower score levels were associated with larger tumor size (p < 0.05).
Conclusion:
Our investigation could provide evidence that specific immune-nutritional scores can help distinguish individuals diagnosed with testicular GCT who are more likely to be identified with advanced disease stages.
