The prognostic nutritional index (PNI), an indicator of nutritional status and systemic inflammation, is associated with survival in several types of lymphoma. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of PNI in diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). With three hundred and ten patients were enrolled, the median level of PNI was 45.90 (range 25.30–139.70). According to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, 44.85 was determined to be the best cutoff value to divide patients into two different groups. With a median follow-up of 33.3 months (range 3.5–118.5), compared with the high PNI group, the 3-year and adjusted 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were worse in the low PNI group (all P < 0.050). Multivariate Cox analysis suggested that low PNI was an independent risk factor for PFS (hazard ratio (HR) 2.196, 95 % CI 1.197–4.030, P = 0.011) and showed a tendency to predict inferior OS (HR 1.918, 95 % CI 0.932–3.948, P = 0.077). Furthermore, PNI combined with other significant prognostic factors to build a novel prognostic index, namely NPI, was more accurate than the National Comprehensive Cancer Network international prognostic index (NCCN-IPI) to predict worse PFS and had a similar effect on predicting OS. All these findings suggested that PNI, as a novel available biomarker, was of prognostic significance in DLBCL patients.

预后营养指数 (PNI) 是营养状况和全身炎症的指标，与几种类型的淋巴瘤的存活率有关。本研究的目的是探讨 PNI 在弥漫性大 B 细胞淋巴瘤 (DLBCL) 中的预后价值。招募了 310 名患者，PNI 的中位水平为 45.90（范围 25.30-139.70）。根据受试者工作特征 (ROC) 曲线，44.85 被确定为将患者分为两个不同组的最佳截止值。中位随访时间为 33.3 个月（范围 3.5-118.5），与高 PNI 组相比，低 PNI 组的 3 年和调整后的 3 年无进展生存（PFS）和总生存（OS）更差。 PNI 组（所有P < 0.050)。多变量 Cox 分析表明低 PNI 是 PFS 的独立危险因素（风险比 (HR) 2.196，95 % CI 1.197–4.030，P  = 0.011）并显示出预测较差 OS 的趋势（HR 1.918，95 % CI 0.932– 3.948，P  = 0.077）。此外，PNI 结合其他重要预后因素构建了一个新的预后指数，即 NPI，比美国国家综合癌症网络国际预后指数（NCCN-IPI）更准确地预测更差的 PFS，对预测 OS 具有相似的效果。所有这些发现表明 PNI 作为一种新的可用生物标志物，对 DLBCL 患者具有预后意义。