Does Prognostic Nutritional Index Predict Survival in Operated Papilla Vateri Tumors? A Single-centre Experience

Objective: To determine the PNI's prognostic effect of prognostic nutritional index (PNI) on operated papilla vateri tumor (PVT) survival. Study Design: Descriptive study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Medical Oncology, Ankara City Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, from April 2003 to December 2020. Methodology: One hundred and eighty-two patients diagnosed with PVT were retrospectively screened. One hundred and twenty-six non-metastatic patients, who met the inclusion criteria and underwent curative surgery. PNIs were calculated using preoperative albumin and lymphocyte values and the cut-off value was taken and the two groups were compared in terms of overall survival. Results: The median age of the patients included in the study was 61 (36-88) years; 59.5% were males. The cut-off value was obtained using ROC-curves for the preoperative PNI values of 126 patients who underwent curative surgery. Patients were divided into two groups as PNI >= 38 and PNI <38. While median overall survival could not be reached in the group with high PNI, it was 39.3 months in the group with low PNI (p <0.001). In the multivariate cox analysis, PNI elevation was found to be an inde-pendent prognostic factor associated with a good prognosis (hazard ratio: 0.18, 95% CI: 0.07-0.48, p <0.001). Conclusion: In patients with papilla vater tumors, undergoing curative surgery, PNI can play a role as an independent marker in predicting prognosis.