Prognostic Value of Combined Preoperative Carcinoembryonic Antigen and Prognostic Nutritional Index in Patients With Stage II–III Colon Cancer

Background: Tumor status can affect patient prognosis. Prognostic nutritional index (PNI), as a nutritional indicator, is closely related to the prognosis of cancer. However, few studies have examined the combined prognostic value of CEA and PNI in patients. This study investigated the relationship between CEA/PNI and prognosis of colon cancer patients. Methods: A total of 513 patients with stage II–III colon cancer who underwent curative resection at two medical centers from 2009 to 2019 were included. Clinicopathological factors were assessed and overall survival (OS) was assessed in a cohort of 413 patients. Multivariate analysis was used to identify independent prognostic variables to construct histograms predicting 1-year and 3-year OS. Data from 100 independent patients in the validation group was used to validate the prognostic model. Results: The median OS time was 33.6 months, and mortality was observed in 54 patients. Multivariate analysis revealed that preoperative CEA/PNI, lymph node metastasis, peripheral nerve invasion, operation mode, and postoperative chemotherapy were independent factors for prognosis evaluation and thus were utilized to develop the nomogram. The C-index was 0.788 in the learning set and 0.836 in the validation set. The calibration curves reached favorable consensus among the 1-, 3-year OS prediction and actual observation. Conclusion: The combined use of CEA and PNI is an independent prognostic factor and thus can serve as a basis for a model to predict the prognosis of patients with stage II–III colon cancer.