SynthesisFrontiers in nutrition2025
Prognostic value of Prognostic Nutritional Index in cancer: an umbrella review of systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Frontiers in nutrition, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Prognostic value of the Controlling Nutritional Status (CONUT) score in cancer: an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Association between prognostic nutritional index and prognosis in non-small cell lung cancer patients receiving PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors: a meta-analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Pooled it
- Predictors of Metastatic Lymph Node Burden in Colorectal Cancer: A Negative Binomial Regression Analysis.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Baseline Inflammatory and Nutritional Indices Show Limited Discrimination for Major Pathological Response and Survival After Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Gastric Cancer: A Retrospective Comparison of Eleven Indices.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- The prognostic nutritional index vs. MELD for short-term mortality in critically ill liver disease: a retrospective multi-cohort study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- The role of hormonal and nutritional biomarkers in predicting immune checkpoint inhibitor efficacy: current limitations and future prospects.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) is a critical biomarker reflecting the nutritional and immune status of cancer patients. Its association with the prognosis of various malignant tumors has been extensively investigated. However, a comprehensive systematic evaluation of the prognostic significance of PNI across different cancer types remains limited. Methods: This umbrella review conducted a systematic search of PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library to include meta-analyses that assessed survival outcomes related to cancer across diverse malignancy categories. The quality of the evidence was evaluated utilizing the GRADE and AMSTAR tools. Effect sizes, expressed as hazard ratios (HR) or odds ratios (OR), were synthesized using either random-effects or fixed-effects models. Additionally, analyses of heterogeneity, indicated by I Results: The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI) demonstrates associations across multiple cancer types, with a low PNI significantly linked to poor prognosis in 12 categories of malignant tumors. The HRs for 103 outcomes ranged from 1.15 to 2.98 ( Conclusion: A low Prognostic Nutritional Index is consistently associated with poorer outcomes across various cancer types, particularly in predicting responses to immunotherapy. However, due to the current limited quality of evidence, it cannot yet be recommended as a standalone prognostic or decision-making tool across all tumors. Future rigorously designed, multi-center studies are required to validate its clinical utility. Systematic review registration: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/,CRD42025111093.
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