Background Recent studies have identified immunonutritional indexes such as hemoglobin–albumin–lymphocyte–platelet (HALP) score, prognostic nutritional index (PNI), and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in various malignancies. However, there is a lack of studies to indicate whether the immune-nutritional indexes can predict the prognosis of patients with pineal region tumors. The objective was to estimate the prognostication of immune-nutritional indexes in patients with pineal region tumors.

Methods A retrospective cohort investigation involving 51 patients with pineal region tumors was conducted. Therefore, the HALP score, PNI, and NLR were measured for each patient before surgery. The association between the immune-nutritional indexes and prognosis was analyzed using Cox hazard regression.

Results For the total cohort, 1-, 2-, and 5-year survival probabilities were 92% (95% confidence interval [CI] 85–99.8), 92% (95% CI 85–99.8), and 81% (95% CI 70–94.1), respectively. HALP scores were positively associated with survival benefits. At the cutoff threshold of 22.6, the high-HALP group had a significantly longer survival time than the low-HALP group (hazard ratio 0.25, 95% CI 0.06–1.00, p-value 0.05).

Conclusion The preoperative HALP score is an independent prognostic factor for patients diagnosed with pineal region tumors. Furthermore, prospective multicenter studies ought to be performed in the future to externally validate the immunonutritional indexes' prognostication.

The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013). A human research ethics committee approved the present study (REC.65-431-10-1). Because it was a retrospective analysis, the current study did not require patients' informed consent. However, the identity numbers of patients were encoded before analysis.

S.S. and T.T. conceived the study and designed the method. T.T. supervised the completion of the data collection. S.S., A.K., and T.T. undertook the recruitment of participating centers and patients and managed the data, including quality control. A.K. and T.T. provided statistical advice on the study design and analyzed the data, while S.S. drafted the manuscript, and all authors contributed substantially to its revision. T.T. takes responsibility for the paper as a whole.

Article published online:
05 July 2024

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