Comparison of Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) for nutritional assessment in hepatocellular carcinoma patients.

Background: Malnutrition affects the prognosis and response to treatment in cancer patients. There is no gold standard for nutritional assessment in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). This study aimed to compare Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment (PG-SGA) and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) in predicting mortality in HCC patients.

Method: We included HCC patients in the outpatient clinic at HRH Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Medical Center. The nutritional status was assessed according to PG-SGA and MNA. Patients were followed up for 1 year to verify the incidence of death and complications.

Result: Eighty-nine HCC patients were included. The mean age was 62.2 years. Most of the patients were treated with transarterial chemoembolization. Malnutrition identified by PG-SGA and MNA was 53.9% and 51.7%, respectively. The mortality rate was 2.65 cases per 100 persons. Overall survival rate was 90% and 81.5% at 12 and 24 months, respectively. Patients with malnutrition assessed by PG-SGA and MNA had significantly higher mortality than patients without malnutrition. PG-SGA had a sensitivity of 80% for predicting mortality. PG-SGA had higher accuracy for predicting the mortality of HCC patients than MNA (AUROC PG-SGA 0.7148 and MNA 0.7098).

Conclusion: HCC patients with malnutrition were evaluated by PG-SGA and MNA had higher mortality than HCC patients without malnutrition. PG-SGA had higher accuracy in predicting mortality than MNA.