The Inflammatory Prognostic Index Predicts Cancer-Specific Outcomes of Patients with Resected Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

BACKGROUND: Previous study developed a new inflammatory prognostic index (IPI) and found the prognostic value of IPI for all stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). To the best of our knowledge, however, no studies regarding IPI in patients with resected NSCLC are available. METHODS: Three hundred forty-one NSCLC patients who underwent surgery at our institution were included. The IPI was calculated as C-reactive protein × neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR)/serum albumin. The optimal cut-off value was calculated by the Cutoff Finder. Univariate and multivariate analyses were calculated by the Cox proportional hazards regression model. RESULTS: The optimal cut-off value was 5.237 for IPI. The IPI was associated with age, gender, smoking status, histology, pT status and serum CYFRA21-1 level, but not pStage, pN status and serum carcinoembryonic antigen level. The 5-year cancer-specific survival of patients with low IPI was significantly better than that with high IPI (84.8% vs. 57.9%, p<0.001). Furthermore, low IPI was significantly associated with favorable cancer-specific survival in univariate (HR =0.326, 95% CI =0.212-0.494; p<0.001) and multivariate (HR =0.438, 95% CI =0.276-0.690; p=0.001) analyses. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to demonstrate that IPI might serve as an efficient prognostic indicator in resected NSCLC.