Prognostic significance of systemic immune-inflammation index and platelet-albumin-bilirubin grade in patients with pancreatic cancer undergoing radical surgery

Abstract

Systemic inflammatory markers are associated with patient survival in pancreatic cancer (PC). The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic significance of the systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) in PC patients who underwent radical surgery. Platelet-albumin-bilirubin (PALBI) grade is a composite evaluation index based on liver function. Patients with pancreatic head cancer are prone to obstructive jaundice, which leads to abnormal liver function. Based on this, we also explored the prognostic value of PALBI grade in PC patients. Patients with pathologically confirmed PC who had undergone radical surgery (with negative surgical margin) for the first time at the Affiliated Hospital of Qingdao University from January 2013 to December 2019 and followed up by December 2020 were retrospectively analyzed. Peripheral blood cell count is easily affected by infection or hematological diseases, which affects the results, so it is excluded. Clinical data and laboratory examination indexes were collected. The SII and PALBI grade were calculated. The cutoff values were determined using the Youden index. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to analyze the prognostic value of the SII and PALBI grade through univariate and multivariate survival analysis. A total of 214 patients [median age, 60.29 years; 128 (59.8%) men] met the inclusion criteria. There were 140 patients (65.4%) with pancreatic head cancer according to the tumor location. They were divided into high and low SII or PALBI groups by cutoff values of 705 and -5.6, respectively. According to the multivariate analysis, SII (P<0.001) was an independent factor negatively associated with overall survival (OS) and disease-free survival (DFS). In patients with pancreatic head cancer, PALBI grade was associated with shorter OS (P=0.031). The combination of high SII and high PALBI grade had stronger predictive value for poor prognosis (log-rank test, P<0.001), which the OS was 11.3 months less than the combination of low two groups. SII was a promising prognostic biomarker in PC. And PALBI grade also showed predictive value for patients with pancreatic head cancer. Therefore, it can help predict the treatment outcomes in these patients.