Relationship between prognostic nutritional index and mortality in cancer patients treated with immunotherapy

Immunotherapy, in addition to surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and targeted therapies in cancer treatment, has emerged over the last decade as a significant contributor to improving patient survival. The prognostic nutritional index (PNI), which is a simple and useful tool that provides information about the general health status of patients and helps the treatment process, is used for many different types of cancer. This study aimed to evaluate the prognostic importance of PNI on mortality in cancer patients treated with immunotherapy. A total of 100 patients who were treated with immune checkpoint blockade in the oncology outpatient clinic were included retrospectively. According to our findings, only 23% of patients responded to immunotherapy, while 72% progressed. When PNI values were compared according to mortality status, it was determined that PNI values at baseline, first, third, sixth, and twelfth months were statistically significantly lower in patients who died during their follow-up. We also determined 44 as the cut-off value for the PNI in our study. The mortality rate was 76.7% in patients with PNI>44 and 43.5% in patients with PNI≤44. PNI appears to be a simple and useful tool for predicting mortality in cancer patients treated with immunotherapy.