Predictive impact of the prognostic nutritional index in early-staged hepatocellular carcinoma after operative microwave ablation

Abstract

Background: The prognostic nutritional index (PNI) is used to assess immune and nutritional status, and is a prognostic factor for several malignant tumors. However, little evidence exists regarding the predictive impact of prognostic nutritional index (PNI) after local ablation therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the value of PNI to predict recurrence and survival after operative microwave ablation in patients with early-stage HCC. Methods: This retrospective study included 341 patients who underwent operative microwave ablation for HCC in Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage 0-A at our institute between 2007 and 2015. We analyzed overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), and evaluated factors related to prognosis in multivariate Cox regression analyses. Results: The OS rates at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years after microwave ablation were 100%, 92.7%, 85.1%, and 57.5% in patients with high-PNI levels, and 96.5%, 78.2%, 59.7%, and 20.7% in patients with low-PNI levels, respectively (P < 0.001). The RFS rates at 1, 3, 5, and 10 years after microwave ablation were 96.3%, 75.2%, 55.4%, and 30.4% in patients with high-PNI levels, and 94.4%, 48.8%, 36.4%, and 13.1% in patients with low-PNI levels, respectively (P < 0.001). In multivariate analyses, preoperative PNI level was an independent prognostic factor for both OS and RFS. Conclusion: Our results revealed the preoperative PNI level was a simple and novel predictive marker of survival and recurrence after microwave ablation in patients with early-stage HCC.

Keywords

• Hepatocellular carcinoma
• Local ablation
• Microwave ablation
• Prognostic nutritional index