Predictive Value of Prognostic Nutritional Index in Prognosis and Spontaneous Pleurodesis of Patients with Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer and Malignant Pleural Effusion

Background and objective A prognostic nutritional index (PNI) developed by nutritional status and inflammation are closely associated with poor prognosis in malignant tumors. However, the predictive impact of PNI in patients with malignant pleural effusion (MPE) remains inconclusive. The study aimed to determine the predictive value of PNI in prognosis and spontaneous pleurodesis among patients with MPE. Methods The patients diagnosed with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with MPE in West China Hospital between January 2015 and December 2022 were reviewed and allocated randomly to development set(60%) and validation set(40%). After collecting clinical data, peripheral blood inflammation indices and calculating systemic inflammation indices, the effects of PNI on prognosis and spontaneous pleurodesis have been evaluated by Cox proportional hazards models, Kaplan-Meier method and Nelson-Aalen cumulative risk curve. Results In total, 261 patients diagnosed NSCLC with MPE were selected (development set: n=157; validation set: n=104), of whom 58.2% were aged