Prognostic significance of baseline nutritional index for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma after radical esophagectomy

Essential updates 2022/2023: Recent advances in perioperative management of esophagectomy to improve operative outcomes

In the era of minimally invasive surgery, esophagectomy remains a highly invasive procedure with a high rate of postoperative complications. Preoperative risk assessment is essential for planning esophagectomy in patients with esophageal cancer, and it is crucial to implement evidence-based perioperative management to mitigate these risks. Perioperative support from multidisciplinary teams has recently been reported to improve the perioperative nutritional status and long-term survival of patients undergoing esophagectomy. Intraoperative management of anesthesia and fluid therapy also significantly affects short-term outcomes after esophagectomy. In this narrative review, we outline the recent updates in the perioperative management of esophagectomy, focusing on preoperative risk assessment, intraoperative management, and perioperative support by multidisciplinary teams to improve operative outcomes.

Survival impact of perioperative changes in prognostic nutritional index levels after esophagectomy

BACKGROUND

The correlation between perioperative changes in nutritional status during esophagectomy and prognosis remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of changes in prognostic nutritional index levels during the perioperative period on esophageal cancer patient survivals.

METHODS

From January 2009 to May 2019, 158 patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma were enrolled. From the time-dependent ROC analysis, the cutoff values of preoperative and postoperative prognostic nutritional index levels were 46.9 and 40.9. Patients were divided into preoperative-high group (Group H) and preoperative-low group (Group L). Then, patients in Group L were divided into preoperative-low and postoperative-high group (Group L-H) and preoperative-low and postoperative-low group (Group L-L). Long-term outcomes and prognostic factors were evaluated.

RESULTS

Patients in Group L had significantly worse overall survival than those in Group H (p = 0.001). Patients in Group L-L had significantly worse overall survival than those in Group L-H (p = 0.023). However, there was no significant difference in overall survival between Groups H and L-H (p = 0.224). In multivariable analysis, advanced pathological stage (hazard ratio 10.947, 95% confidence interval 2.590-46.268, p = 0.001) and Group L-L (hazard ratio 2.171, 95% confidence interval 1.249-3.775, p = 0.006) were independent predictors of poor overall survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients in Group L-H had a good prognosis, similar to those in Group H. This result indicated that increasing the postoperative prognostic nutritional index level sufficiently using various intensive perioperative support methods could improve prognosis after esophagectomy in patients with poor preoperative nutritional status.

Prognostic Significance of Prognostic Nutritional Index in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Radical Radiotherapy: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

BACKGROUND

The preoperative prognostic nutritional index (PNI) is associated with postoperative complications and long-term survival of various cancers. However, its role in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is inconclusive. The aim of this study was to identify the prognostic value of PNI in predicting survival in ESCC patients undergoing radical radiotherapy.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed 354 ESCC patients undergoing radical radiotherapy. The time-dependent receiver operating characteristics was used to determine the optimal cutoff value. The association between PNI and survival was determined by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression model. Propensity score matching was applied to balance the baseline characteristics.

RESULTS

PNI was positively correlated with hemoglobin (P < 0.001) and prealbumin (P < 0.001). The optimal cutoff value of PNI was set at 50.5. The 5-year overall survival (OS) in low PNI group and high PNI group were 20.8% and 34.0%, respectively (P < 0.001). The 5-year progression free survival in patients with low PNI and high PNI were 15.2% and 28.5%, respectively (P = 0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that PNI was a significant predictor for OS (P = 0.038). In the PSM analysis, PNI still remained an independent predictor for OS (P = 0.015).

CONCLUSIONS

The PNI is a significant and independent predictor for OS of ESCC patients undergoing radical radiotherapy.

Onodera's prognostic nutritional index is a strong prognostic indicator for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after initial hepatectomy, especially patients with preserved liver function

Background

Several inflammation-based scores are used to assess the surgical outcomes of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of the present study was to elucidate the prognostic value of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in HCC patients who underwent hepatectomy with special attention to preoperative liver functional reserve.

Methods

Preoperative demographic and tumor-related factors were analyzed in 189 patients with HCC undergoing initial hepatectomy from August 2005 to May 2016 to identify significant prognostic factors.

Results

Multivariate analysis for overall survival (OS) revealed that female sex (p = 0.005), tumor size (p < 0.001) and PNI (p = 0.001) were independent prognostic factors. Compared to the High PNI group (PNI ≥ 37, n = 172), the Low PNI group (PNI < 37, n = 17) had impaired liver function and significantly poorer OS (13% vs. 67% in 5-year OS, p = 0.001) and recurrence-free survival (RFS) (8 vs. 25 months in median PFS time, p = 0.002). In the subgroup of patients with a preserved liver function of LHL15 ≥ 0.9, PNI was also independent prognostic factor, and OS (21% vs. 70% in 5-year OS, p = 0.008) and RFS (8 vs. 28 months in median PFS time, p = 0.018) were significantly poorer in the Low PNI group than the High PNI group.

Conclusions

PNI was an independent prognostic factor for HCC patients who underwent hepatectomy. Patients with PNI lower than 37 were at high risk for early recurrence and poor patient survival, especially in the patients with preserved liver function of LHL ≥ 0.9.

The impact of geriatric nutritional risk index on surgical outcomes after esophagectomy in patients with esophageal cancer

BACKGROUND

Geriatric Nutritional Index (GNRI) was shown to be closely associated with nutrition-related complications and mortality in elderly hospitalized patients. Impact of GNRI on postoperative outcomes in surgically treated esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients has not been evaluated extensively.

METHODS

A total of 240 patients with ESCC who underwent radical esophagectomy with two- or three-field lymphadenectomy between April 2000 and April 2012 were included in this retrospective study. GNRI formula was as follows: 1.489 × albumin (g/dl) + 41.7 × current weight/ideal weight. Patients were categorized as GNRI-low (GNRI < 92) or GNRI-high (GNRI ≥ 92) according to the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves generated for multiple logistic regression analysis using 5-year overall survival as the end point. The impact of GNRI status on short- and long-term outcomes of curative surgery for ESCC was examined.

RESULTS

There were 44 (18.3%) and 196 (82.7%) patients in the GNRI-low and GNRI-high groups, respectively. Among the investigated demographic factors, the rate of nodal metastasis and pathological stage were significantly higher in the GNRI-low group than in the GNRI-high group (p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively). Univariate analysis of postoperative complications revealed that the rate of lung complications was significantly higher in the GNRI-low group than in the GNRI-high group (p = 0.024), while GNRI was not an independent risk factor for the development of lung complications by multivariate analysis (Odds Ratio: 1.746; p = 0.126). 5-year overall survival (OS) was significantly lower in the GNRI-low group than in the GNRI-high group (p < 0.01). Moreover, GNRI was an independent prognostic factor for OS [Hazard ratio: 1.687; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.038-2.742; p = 0.035], but not for cancer-specific survival. Analysis with stratification by tumor stage revealed that both OS and Cancer-Specific Survival (CSS) were worse in patients with low GNRI than those with high GNRI only among those with stage III ESCC (34.4% vs. 52.1%, p = 0.049 and 36.1% vs. 57.2%, p = 0.041, respectively). In the stage III ESCC, primary tumor size tends to be greater in the GNRI-low group than in the GNRI-high group (5.69 vs. 4.75 cm, p = 0.085) and the incidence of preoperative dysphagia was significantly higher in the GNRI-low group than in the GNRI-high group (74% vs. 45.9%, p = 0.032).

CONCLUSION

GNRI was closely associated with long-term survival after curative surgery in patients with stage III ESCC. Intensive follow-up after surgery should be performed for ESCC patients with low GNRI.

A novel inflammation-based prognostic index for patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Neutrophil lymphocyte ratio/prealbumin ratio

NLR/Alb (neutrophil lymphocyte ratio/albumin ratio), is a prognostic index for esophageal cancer has been confirmed. Prealbumin (PA) is more sensitive to malnutrition than albumin. A new prognostic index, named neutrophil lymphocyte ratio/prealbumin ratio (NLR/PA), for predicting the survival time in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) was proposed.A retrospective study of 315 cases with ESCC was enrolled. The optimal cut-off values were evaluated by ROC curve (the receiver operating characteristics curve). Pearson correlation analyses were used to calculate the correlations among NLR, Alb, NLR/Alb and NLR/PA. The overall survival (OS) was calculated by Kaplan-Meier method. Cox regression analyses were performed to evaluate the prognostic factors.The optimal cut-off value was 0.01 for NLR/PA according to ROC curve. According to multivariate analyses, TNM stage, NLR, NLR/Alb, NLR/PA were prognostic factors for OS. The AUC area (the area under the receiver operating characteristics curves) of the NLR/PA was higher than the areas of NLR and NLR/Alb for all the patients. The index of NLR/ PA had a higher AUC area than that of the index of NLR or NLR/Alb for patients in stage I-II. But in stage III-IVA, the index of NLR had a higher AUC area than that of the index of NLR/PA or NLR/Alb.The index of NLR/PA is superior to the index of NLR as a prognostic indicator for patients with early stage (stage I-II) ESCC.