Prognostic nutritional index as a predictor of survival in metastatic gastroesophageal cancer patients treated with immunotherapy.

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Authors: Yahan Yang, Katherine Lajkosz, Hiroko Aoyama, Yvonne Bach, Sokaina Akhtar, Alana St Bernard, Carly C. Barron, Lucy Xiaolu Ma, Lawson Eng, Raymond Woo-Jun Jang, Enrique Sanz‐García, Elena C. Elimova
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Abstract

439 Background: The prognostic value of Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), which reflects both the nutritional and immunological status, has been shown in several cancers including gastroesophageal cancer (GEC). Its predictive value for survival in GEC patients treated with immunotherapy (IO) still needs be validated. Methods: A total of 130 metastatic GEC patients whose first-line treatments included IO from April 2017 to May 2025 were included. Pre-treatment serum albumin and total lymphocyte count were used to calculate PNI. The optimal cutoff value was determined with time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. The area under the curve (AUC) was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method and 95% CIs were derived via bootstrapping. The association between PNI and overall survival (OS) was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards models, adjusting for age, sex, race (Asian vs non-Asian), primary tumor, de novo vs recurrence and histology. Results: This study included 31 patients with esophageal cancer, 47 with gastroesophageal junction cancer, and 52 with gastric cancer. Among these patients, 86 (66%) had de novo metastatic disease and 44 (34%) had recurrent metastatic disease. The median age was 60 years (IQR: 17). The overall median follow-up time was 26.5 months and the median OS was 16.4 months. ROC analysis using continuous PNI yielded the highest discriminative performance at 6 months (AUC: 0.81, 95% CI: 0.70-0.91). The optimal cutoff value for PNI was identified as 44, with an AUC of 0.75 (95% CI: 0.66-0.84) at 6 months. Patients were categorized into high-PNI (≥44, 62%) and low-PNI groups (

Fields of Study & Subjects

Inflammatory Biomarkers in Disease Prognosis Nutrition and Health in Aging Gastric Cancer Management and Outcomes

Publication details

Journal / source
Journal of Clinical Oncology
Volume
44
Issue
2_suppl
Pages
439–439
Publication date
10 January 2026
Language
EN