Association Between Nutritional Status and Survival in Patients Requiring Treatment for Spinal Metastases

The Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) is a standardized tool for assessing malnutrition in patients with cancer. The primary aim of this study was to assess the impact of preoperative nutritional status as measured by PG-SGA on survival in patients requiring surgical intervention and/or radiotherapy for spinal metastases.

Patients with spinal metastases who underwent surgery and/or radiation therapy for symptomatic spinal metastases were enrolled in the AO Spine Metastatic Tumor Research and Outcomes Network, a prospective international multicenter research registry, between September 2017 and August 2022. Using the PG-SGA, nutritional status was classified into 3 categories: A, well nourished; B, moderately malnourished; and C, severely malnourished.

A total of 589 patients met the inclusion criteria; 362 were classified as well nourished (61%), 159 were moderately malnourished (27%), and 68 were severely malnourished (12%). The median survival was 491 days, 328 days, and 117 days for well-nourished, moderately malnourished, and severely malnourished patients, respectively. In the multivariate analyses, severe malnourishment (HR 2.5 95% CI 1.4-4.3, P < .01) and an ECOG performance status of 3 or 4 (HR 2.7 95% CI 1.2-6.0) remained associated with significantly worse survival.

Malnutrition as measured by the PG-SGA demonstrated to be significantly and independently associated with postoperative survival. The PG-SGA is a simple and useful tool to identify spinal metastases patients at risk of early postoperative mortality, and inclusion in the preoperative evaluation of these patients should be considered.