Prognostic role of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in patients with head and neck neoplasms undergoing radiotherapy: A meta-analysis

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Prognostic role of the prognostic nutritional index (PNI) in patients with head and neck neoplasms undergoing radiotherapy: A meta-analysis Via Head and neck cancers by Yujie Shi, Yue Zhang, Yaling Niu, Yingjie Chen, Changgui Kou Background This novel meta-analysis was conducted to systematically and comprehensively evaluate the prognostic role of the pretreatment PNI in patients with head and neck neoplasms (HNNs) undergoing radiotherapy. Methods Three databases, PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science, were used to retrieve desired literature. Hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted and pooled by fixed-effects or random-effects models to analyze the relationship between the PNI and survival outcomes: overall survival (OS), distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), and progression-free survival (PFS). Results Ten eligible studies involving 3,458 HNN patients were included in our analysis. The robustness of the pooled results was ensured by heterogeneity tests (I2 = 22.6%, 0.0%, and 0.0% for OS, DMFS, and PFS, respectively). The fixed-effects model revealed a lower pretreatment PNI was significantly related to a worse OS (HR = 1.974; 95% CI: 1.642–2.373; P Conclusion The pretreatment PNI is a promising indicator to evaluate and predict the long-term prognostic survival outcomes in HNN patients undergoing radiotherapy. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.