Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between pretreatment nutritional status and prognosis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).
Methods: Pretreatment nutritional status was evaluated by ideal body weight percentile (IBW%) and serum albumin for 512 patients with NPC who underwent radical radiotherapy. Kaplan-Meier methods, log-rank test, and a Cox model were applied for survival analysis.
Results: Before radiotherapy, IBW% <90% was related to poorer overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS; p = .031 and p = .012, respectively); albumin ≤43.0 g/L was related to poorer OS and DMFS (p < .001 and p = .042, respectively); both IBW% and albumin were independent prognostic factors for OS; those patients with IBW% <90% and albumin ≤43.0 g/L simultaneously had the worst OS and DMFS.
Conclusion: Decrease of pretreatment IBW% and albumin was related to poorer survival of NPC.
Keywords: IBW%; albumin; malnutrition; nasopharyngeal carcinoma; prognosis.
Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.