The preoperative geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) is an independent prognostic factor in elderly patients underwent curative resection for colorectal cancer

Abstract The world is becoming longer-lived, and the number of elderly colorectal cancer patients is increasing. It is very important to identify simple and inexpensive postoperative predictors in elderly colorectal cancer patients. The geriatric nutritional risk index (GNRI) is a marker of systemic nutrition and is associated with poor survival in various kinds of cancers. A few reports have investigated recurrence factors using preoperative GNRI with CRC (colorectal cancer) patients. This study aimed to investigate whether preoperative GNRI is associated with recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) in elderly patients with CRC. This study retrospectively enrolled 259 patients with Stage I–III CRC who were more than 65 years old and underwent curative surgery at a single institution in 2012–2017. We classified them into low GNRI (RFS: ≤ 90.5, OS ≤ 101.1) group and high GNRI (RFS: > 90.5, OS > 101.1) group. Multivariable analyses showed low GNRI group was an independent risk factor for 3-year RFS (P = 0.006) and OS (P = 0.001) in the patients with CRC. Kaplan–Meier analysis showed 3-year RFS and 3-year OS were significantly worse in the low GNRI group than in high GNRI group (p = 0.001, 0.0037). A low-preoperative GNRI was significantly associated with a poor prognosis in elderly CRC patients.