Nutritional status and inflammatory markers as survival predictors in
pediatric central nervous system tumors
Abstract
Background: Central nervous system tumors (CNS) are the second most
common malignancies in childhood. Inflammation and changes in
nutritional status play an important role and can be used as prognostic
markers. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the predictive ability of
nutritional status and inflammatory markers on overall survival (OS) of
pediatric patients with CNS. Methods: In this retrospective cohort
study, 103 patients were followed for 1, 3, and 5 years. Clinical,
anthropometric, and hematological data were collected. Body mass index
for age (BMI/A), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and systemic
inflammation response index (SIRI) were calculated. OS curves were
calculated using the Kaplan Meier method and evaluated using the
Log-Rank test. The Cox proportional hazards model was performed to
identify independent variables associated with prognostic factors,
generating hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).
Results: Nutritional status did not significantly affect OS. However,
patients with NLR ≥ 2.18 and SIRI ≥ 1249.18 had significantly lower OS
in the three periods evaluated. However, only treatment with exclusive
radiotherapy or chemotherapy (RT or CT) and high NLR were identified as
independent prognostic factors for worse OS. Treatment (RT or CT) was an
independent prognostic factor for OS at 1 year (HR: 12.76; 95%CI
1.73-94.12), 3 years (HR: 16.22; 95%CI 2.19-120.06), and 5 years (HR:
16.2295%CI 2.19-120.07) while NLR was a prognostic factor only at 3
years and 5 years (HR: 1.94; 95%CI 1.02-3.69). Conclusion: High
pretreatment NLR was shown to be an independent prognostic factor for OS
in pediatric patients with CNS.