Introduction: Systemic nutrition and inflammation are the critical factors in cancer initiation, evolution, and progression. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients who underwent liver resection.
Methods: A total of 202 HCC patients met the criteria and were included in the study. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to calculate the optimal PNI and SII cutoff values. The relationship between PNI/SII and clinicopathologic parameters was analyzed. The effect of PNI and SII on recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) was investigated by Kaplan-Meier curves and Cox proportional hazards models.
Results: The areas under the ROC curve for PNI and SII were 0.64 and 0.58. The ideal preoperative PNI and SII cutoff values were 50.25 and 461.5, respectively. Multivariate Cox regression analysis identified that the PNI (P = 0.001) and tumor diameter (P = 0.018) were significant prognostic markers for RFS, and that the PNI (P = 0.049), SII (P = 0.039) and tumor diameter (P = 0.001) were significant prognostic markers for OS. The median RFS in the PNI-low and PNI-high groups was 13.5 months and 23 months (P = 0.001), and that in the SII-low and SII-high groups was 18 months and 15 months (P = 0.03), respectively. The median OS in the PNI-low and PNI-high groups was 24 months and 39 months (P = 0.001), and that in the SII-low and SII-high groups was 36 months and 22 months (P = 0.002), respectively.
Conclusion: Interestingly, we found that PNI and SII could be important prognostic parameters for HCC patients who under hepatectomy.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Prognostic nutritional index; Systemic immune-inflammation index.