Prognostic nutritional index and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio predict toxicities and prognosis in patients with cervical cancer treated with curative radiochemotherapy

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the influence of immunonutritional factors on treatment-related toxicities and survival outcomes in patients with cervical cancer undergoing definitive radiochemotherapy. METHODS: Patients with cervical cancer who received curative radiochemotherapy between 2016 and 2021 were retrospectively investigated. Pretreatment prognostic nutritional index (PNI), neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), monocyte-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), and platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) were measured. Survival outcomes, acute and late toxicities were evaluated. RESULTS: Among the 138 patients, those with larger tumor diameters had significantly lower pre-treatment PNI (p = 0.005). Pre-treatment immunonutritional factors were predictive of clinical survival, whereas post-treatment factors did not correlate with prognosis. Patients with low pre-treatment PNI (<49.5) or high NLR (>2.4) had shorter progression-free survival (PFS, HR: 1.86, p = 0.045 for PNI; HR: 3.15, p = 0.002 for NLR) and overall survival (OS, HR: 1.80, p = 0.048 for PNI; HR: 3.83, p = 0.015 for NLR). High pre-treatment NLR was associated with an increased risk of acute diarrhea (p = 0.049) and late severe toxicities (p = 0.046). Combined analysis revealed that pre-treatment good nutritional status and low systemic inflammation were linked to longer PFS (p = 0.007) and OS (p = 0.002), and poor nutritional status and substantial systemic inflammation were associated with higher rates of late severe toxicities (p = 0.036), with higher prognostic value in advanced stage patients. CONCLUSION: Pretreatment immunonutritional measures serve as quantitative biomarkers for predicting survivals and treatment toxicities in patients with cervical cancer treated with definitive radiochemotherapy.