Prognostic Nutritional Index predicts morbidity after curative surgery for colorectal cancer.

Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major health concern and it is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Over the last decades, the relationship between cancer and nutritional and inflammatory status in oncologic patients was studied thoroughly and multiple immunonutritional scores were developed. These scores have been mainly related to the prognosis of several cancers. An interaction between the tumour and the host is generated, triggering a systemic inflammatory reaction leading to several neuroendocrine changes. This situation favours a tendency towards anorexia and catabolism. Our hypothesis is that nutritional and inflammatory status of oncologic patients is correlated to postoperative morbidity.

Methods: This is a prospective observational cohort study with those patients undergoing curative surgery for CRC at our institution between September 2015 and March 2017. Nutritional and inflammatory status was established using Onodera's Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI). Complications (overall, severe, infectious and anastomotic leakage) were carefully collected during the first 30 days of the postoperative period.

Results: After carrying out the multivariate analysis, PNI turned out to be a great predictive and protective factor for overall complications (RR: 0.279; 95% CI: 0.141-0.552), severe complications (RR: 0.355; 95% CI: 0.130-0.965), infectious complications (RR: 0.220; 95% CI: 0.099-0.489) and anastomotic leakage (RR: 0.151; 95% CI: 0.036-0.640).

Conclusion: Our work reports that PNI is an independent predictive factor for the development of postoperative complications following curative surgery for CRC.