We aimed to assess the prognostic and predictive significance of pretreatment Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) in extensive-stage small-cell lung cancer (ES-SCLC) patients treated with first-line chemotherapy. We designed this study to evaluate the prognostic role of PNI in 147 ES-SCLC patients treated with platinum-based combination regimen between 2011 and 2018. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses and Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the effects of basal PNI on overall survival (OS). The median age of the patients was 61 (range 38-81). The cutoff value for PNI was determined for whole group and patients were dichotomized into high (≥49.17) and low (<49.17). Seventy-eight (53.1%) patients had low PNI score and 69 (46.9%) patients had high PNI score. Patients with the high PNI score had better OS than those with low PNI (13 versus 12 months, respectively, and P = 0.03). The relationship between PNI score and OS was more prominent in patients over 65 years of age (13 versus 10 months, respectively, and P = 0.03). Progression-free survival of patients with complete response to first-line treatment was statistically significantly better than the other patients (8 versus 7 months, respectively, and P = 0.02). Similarly, OS was statistically significantly better than the other patients (15 versus 8 months, respectively, and P = 0.001). The results of our study show that PNI score is useful in evaluating the OS of patients with ES-SCLC. PNI is a cost-effective prognostic marker and should therefore be included in routine clinical practice.
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