People with non-small cell lung cancer face a tough road after surgery. They need every advantage they can get to stay healthy. A new analysis of 11 studies offers a clue. It focuses on the prognostic nutritional index, or PNI. This score measures how well a person is eating and how strong their immune system is.
The data shows a clear pattern. Patients with a higher PNI score lived longer. The analysis found that a higher score was linked to better overall survival. It also connected to better recurrence-free survival and cancer-specific survival. These are important measures of how long a person stays disease-free and how long they live from cancer causes.
This finding matters for patients preparing for curative lung resection. It suggests that nutrition status before surgery is a key factor. The study did not report safety issues because it looked at existing data. It also noted that this is an association, not proof that changing the score will change the outcome. Still, it highlights a vital connection between nutrition and survival.
