Background and objectives: Pretreatment immunological indicators and nutritional factors are associated with survival of many malignancies. This study aims to develop a prognostic nutritional score based on a combination of pretreatment lymphocyte, platelet, and prealbumin (Co-LPPa) in patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) and to investigate the prognostic significance of this score.
Methods: Patients who underwent pancreatectomy with a curative intent for PC were retrospectively enrolled. A pretreatment prognostic score was established by immunological indicators and nutritional factors that were independently associated with survival.
Results: Pretreatment lymphocyte (<1.6 × 109 /L), platelet (<160 × 109 /L) and prealbumin (<0.23 g/L) were independently associated with poorer overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), and were used to create the Co-LPPa score. The Co-LPPa scores were inversely related to OS and RFS, and were able to stratify survival into four groups. The survival differences among the four groups were all significant. Besides, the Co-LPPa scores could stratify survival independently of pathological prognostic factors. The Co-LPPa score was superior to prognostic nutritional index and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 in predicting OS and RFS.
Conclusion: The Co-LPPa score could accurately predict the prognosis of PC patients who underwent curative resection. The score may be helpful for preoperative therapeutic strategies.
Keywords: lymphocyte; pancreatic cancer; platelet; prealbumin; prognosis.
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