Relationship between frailty and nutrition: Refining predictors of mortality after primary cytoreductive surgery for ovarian cancer

Objective We aimed to examine the interplay between frailty and nutritional status on 90-day mortality after primary cytoreductive surgery (PCS) for ovarian cancer (OC). Methods Patients with OC who underwent PCS from 1/2/2006–4/30/2018 at a single institution were identified. Frailty index (FI) includes 30 items and is calculated summing across all the item scores and dividing by the total; frailty was defined as FI ≥0.15. Nutritional status was considered impaired when preoperative serum albumin was <3.5 g/dL. Logistic regression was used to analyze the association between FI (continuous) and albumin status (binary) and 90-day postoperative mortality. Results A total of 533 patients (mean age, 64.4 years) were included, the majority were stage IIIC disease and serous histology. Albumin was <3.5 g/dL in 87 patients (16.3%) and 113 patients (21.2%) were considered frail. Median FI was 0.07 (IQR 0.03, 0.13). Postoperative 90-day mortality occurred in 24 patients (4.5%). Mortality within 90 days was higher amongst patients with low albumin (12/87, 13.8%), regardless of frailty status (13.8% [9/65] non-frail and 13.6% [3/22] frail patients). Ninety-day mortality in patients with normal albumin (n = 446) was over twice as likely in frail versus non-frail patients (5.5% [5/91] vs. 2.0% [7/355], respectively, p = 0.08). A model to assess 90-day mortality that included both FI and low albumin significantly improved the overall discrimination compared to low albumin alone (AUC 0.76 vs. 0.68 p = 0.03). Conclusion Our findings suggest that frailty and nutrition are both related to 90-day mortality. Preoperative interventions to improve functional and nutritional characteristics are needed.